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ENGLISH   TRAITS 


RALPH  WALDO    EMERSON 


BOSTON  AND   NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN   AND  COMPANY 

£(T  Uniersibe  press,  Cam6rt&8* 

1890 


Copyright,  1856  and  1876, 
BY  KALPII  WALDO  EMEBSON. 

Copyright,  1884, 
BY  EDWARD  W.  EMEKSON. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mats.,  V.  8.  A. 
Printed  by  H.  O.  Iloughton  &  Company. 


STACK  ANNEX 


f 

I 

CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  FIRST  VISIT  TO  ENGLAND      ....  7 

II.  VOYAGE  TO  ENGLAND         ....  23 

III.  LAND      ........  80 

IV.  RACE  ........  87 

V.  ABILITY  ........  60 

VI.  MANNERS  .......  81 

VII.  TRUTH   .......       ..91 

VIII.  CHARACTER        ......  99 

IX.  COCKAYNE      .......  Ill 

X.  WEALTH    .......  118 

XL  ARISTOCRACY  .......  132 

XII.  UNIVERSITIES     ......  152 

XIII.  RELIGION       .......  163 

XIV.  LITERATURE       ......  170 


VI  CONTENTS. 

XV.  THE  "TIMES" 197 

XVI.  STONEHENGE 206 

XVII.  PERSONAL 220 

XVIII.  RESULT    .        .       .       .       .       .        .  225 

XIX.  SPEECH  4.T  MANCHESTER     .  .  232 


ENGLISH   TRAITS. 


ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

CHAPTER   I. 

FIRST   VISIT   TO   ENGLAND. 

I  HAVE  been  twice  in  England.  In  1833,  on  my 
return  from  a  short  tour  in  Sicily,  Italy,  and  France,  I 
crossed  from  Boulogne,  and  landed  in  London  at  the 
Tower  stairs.  It  was  a  dark  Sunday  morning;  there 
•were  few  people  in  the  streets ;  and  I  remember  the 
pleasure  of  that  first  walk  on  English  ground,  with  my 
companion,  an  American  artist,  from  the  Tower  up 
through  Cheapside  and  the  Strand,  to  a  house  in  Russell 
Square,  whither  we  had  been  recommended  to  good 
chambers.  For  the  first  time  for  many  months  we  were 
forced  to  check  the  saucy  habit  of  travellers'  criticism, 
as  we  could  no  longer  speak  aloud  in  the  streets  without 
being  understood.  The  shop-signs  spoke  our  language  ; 
our  country  names  were  on  the  door-plates ;  and  the 
public  and  private  buildings  wore  a  more  native  and 
wonted  front. 

Like  most  young  men  at  that  time,  I  was  much  in- 
debted to  the  men  of  Edinburgh,  and  of  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  —  to  Jeffrey,  Mackintosh,  Hallam,  and  to  Scott, 


8  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

Playfair,  and  De  Quincey ;  and  my  narrow  and  desul- 
tory reading  had  inspired  the  wish  to  see  the  faces  of 
three  or  four  writers,  —  Coleridge,  Wordsworth,  Lan- 
dor,  De  Quincey,  and  the  latest  and  strongest  contrib- 
utor to  the  critical  journals,  Carlyle ;  and  I  suppose  if 
1  had  sifted  the  reasons  that  led  me  to  Europe,  when  I 
was  ill  and  was  advised  to  travel,  it  was  mainly  the 
attraction  of  these  persons.  If  Goethe  had  been  still 
living,  I  might  have  wandered  into  Germany  also.  Be- 
sides those  I  have  named  (for  Scott  was  dead),  there  was 
not  in  Britain  the  man  living  whom  I  cared  to  behold, 
unless  it  were  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  whom  I  after- 
wards saw  at  Westminster  Abbey,  at  the  funeral  of 
Wilberforce.  The  young  scholar  fancies  it  happiness 
enough  to  live  with  people  who  can  give  an  inside  to 
the  world ;  without  reflecting  that  they  are  prisoners, 
too,  of  their  own  thought,  and  cannot  apply  themselves 
to  yours.  The  conditions  of  literary  success  are  almost 
destructive  of  the  best  social  power,  as  they  do  not  leave 
that  frolic  liberty  which  only  can  encounter  a  companion 
on  the  best  terms.  It  is  probable  you  left  some  obscure 
comrade  at  a  tavern,  or  in  the  farms,  with  right  mother- 
wit,  and  equality  to  life,  when  you  crossed  sea  and  land 
to  play  bo-peep  with  celebrated  scribes.  I  have,  how- 
ever, found  writers  superior  to  their  books,  and  I  cling 
to  my  first  belief,  that  a  strong  head  will  dispose  fast 
enough  of  these  impediments,  and  give  one  the  satisfac- 
tion of  reality,  the  sense  of  having  been  met,  and  a 
larger  horizon. 

On  looking  over  the  diary  of  my  journey  in  1833,  I 
find  nothing  to  publish  in  my  memoranda  of  visits  to 


FIRST    VISIT    TO     ENGLAND.  9 

places.  But  I  have  copied  the  few  notes  I  made  of 
visits  to  persons,  as  they  respect  parties  quite  too  good 
and  too  transparent  to  the  whole  world  to  make  it  need- 
ful to  affect  any  prudery  of  suppression  about  a  few 
hints  of  those  bright  personalities. 

At  Florence,  chief  among  artists,  I  found  Horatio 
Greenough,  the  American  sculptor.  His  face  was  so 
handsome,  and  his  person  so  well  formed,  that  he  might 
be  pardoned,  if,  as  was  alleged,  the  face  of  his  Medora, 
and  the  figure  of  a  colossal  Achilles  in  clay,  were  ideal- 
izations of  his  own.  Greenough  was  a  superior  man, 
ardent  and  eloquent,  and  all  his  opinions  had  elevation 
and  magnanimity.  He  believed  that  the  Greeks  had 
wrought  in  schools  or  fraternities, — the  genius  of  the 
master  imparting  his  design  to  his  friends,  and  inflaming 
them  with  it,  and  when  his  strength  was  spent,  a  new 
hand,  with  equal  heat,  continued  the  work ;  and  so  by 
relays,  until  it  was  finished  in  every  part  with  equal  fire. 
This  was  necessary  in  so  refractory  a  material  as  stone ; 
and  he  thought  art  would  never  prosper  until  we  left  our 
shy  jealous  ways,  and  worked  in  society  as  they.  All  his 
thoughts  breathed  the  same  generosity.  He  was  an  ac- 
curate and  a  deep  man.  He  was  a  votary  of  the  Greeks, 
and  impatient  of  Gothic  art.  His  paper  on  Architecture, 
published  in  1843,  announced  in  advance  the  leading 
thoughts  of  Mr.  Ruskin  on  the  morality  in  architecture, 
notwithstanding  the  antagonism  in  their  views  of  the 
history  of  art.  I  have  a  private  letter  from  him,  —  later, 
but  respecting  the  same  period,  —  in  which  he  roughly 
sketches  his  own  theory.  "  Here  is  my  theory  of  struc- 
ture :  A  scientific  arrangement  of  spaces  and  forms  to 


10  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

functions  and  to  site ;  an  emphasis  of  features  propor- 
tioned to  their  gradated  importance  in  function;  color 
and  ornament  to  be  decided  and  arranged  and  varied  by 
strictly  organic  laws,  having  a  distinct  reason  for  each 
decision ;  the  entire  and  immediate  banishment  of  all 
makeshift  and  make-believe." 

Greeuough  brought  me,  through  a  common  friend,  an 
invitation  from  Mr.  Laudor,  who  lived  at  San  Domenica 
di  Fiesole.  On  the  15th  May  I  dined  with  Mr.  Landor. 
I  found  him  noble  and  courteous,  living  in  a  cloud  of  pic- 
tures at  his  Villa  Gherardesca,  a  fine  house  commanding 
a  beautiful  landscape.  I  had  inferred  from  his  books,  or 
magnified  from  some  anecdotes,  an  impression  of  Achil- 
lean wrath,  —  an  untamable  petulance.  I  do  not  know 
whether  the  imputation  were  just  or  not,  but  certainly  on 
this  May  day  his  courtesy  veiled  that  haughty  mind,  and 
he  was  the  most  patient  and  gentle  of  hosts.  He  praised 
the  beautiful  cyclamen  which  grows  all  about  Florence ; 
lie  admired  Washington ;  talked  of  Wordsworth,  Byron, 
Massinger,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher.  To  be  sure,  he  is 
decided  in  his  opinions,  likes  to  surprise,  and  is  well  con- 
tent to  impress,  if  possible,  his  English  whim  upon  the 
immutable  past.  No  great  man  ever  had  a  great  son,  if 
Philip  and  Alexander  be  not  an  exception;  and  Philip  he 
calls  the  greater  man.  In  art,  he  loves  the  Greeks,  and 
in  sculpture,  them  only.  He  prefers  the  Venus  to  every- 
thing else,  and,  after  that,  the  head  of  Alexander,  in  the 
gallery  here.  He  prefers  John  of  Bologna  to  Michel 
Angelo ;  in  painting,  Raffaelle ;  and  shares  the  growing 
taste  for  Perugino  and  the  early  masters.  The  Greek 
histories  he  thought  the  only  good ;  and  after  them,  Vol- 


FIRST    VISIT    TO    ENGLAND.  11 

taire's.  I  could  not  make  him  praise  Mackintosh,  nor 
my  more  recent  friends  ;  Montaigne  very  cordially,  — > 
and  Charron  also,  which  seemed  undiscriminating.  He 
thought  Degerando  indebted  to  "Lucas  on  Happiness" 
and  "  Lucas  on  Holiness " !  He  pestered  me  with 
Southey;  but  who  is  Southey? 

He  invited  me  to  breakfast  on  Friday.  On  Friday  I 
did  not  fail  to  go,  and  this  time  with  Greenough.  He 
entertained  us  at  once  with  reciting  half  a  dozen  hexam- 
eter lines  of  Julius  Caesar's  !  —  from  Donatus,  he  said. 
He  glorified  Lord  Chesterfield  more  than  was  necessary, 
and  undervalued  Burke,  and  undervalued  Socrates  ;  des- 
ignated as  three  of  the  greatest  of  men,  Washington, 
Phocion,  and  Timoleon ;  much  as  our  pomologists,  in 
their  lists,  select  the  three  or  the  six  best  pears  "  for  a 
small  orchard  "  ;  and  did  not  even  omit  to  remark  the 
similar  termination  of  their  names.  "A  great  man,"  he 
said,  "  should  make  great  sacrifices,  and  kill  his  hundred 
oxen,  without  knowing  whether  they  would  be  consumed 
by  gods  and  heroes,  or  whether  the  flies  would  eat  them." 
I  had  visited  Professor  Amici,  who  had  shown  me  his 
microscopes,  magnifying  (it  was  said)  two  thousand  diam- 
eters ;  and  I  spoke  of  the  uses  to  which  they  were  applied. 
Landor  despised  entomology,  yet,  in  the  same  breath, 
said,  "  the  sublime  was  in  a  grain  of  dust."  I  suppose  I 
teased  him  about  recent  writers,  but  he  professed  never 
to  have  heard  of  Herschel,  not  even  by  name.  One  room 
was  full  of  pictures,  which  he  likes  to  show,  especially 
one  piece,  standing  before  which,  he  said  "he  would  give 
fifty  guineas  to  the  man  that  would  swear  it  was  a  Do- 
menichino."  I  was  more  curious  to  see  his  library,  but 


12  ENGLISH    TEAITS. 

Mr.  H ,  one  of  the  guests,  told  me  that  Mr.  Landor 

gives  away  his  books,  and  has  never  more  than  a  dozen 
at  a  time  in  his  house. 

Mr.  Landor  carries  to  its  height  the  love  of  freak  -which 
the  English  delight  to  indulge,  as  if  to  signalize  their 
commanding  freedom.  He  has  a  wonderful  brain,  des- 
potic, violent,  and  inexhaustible,  meant  for  a  soldier,  by 
what  chance  converted  to  letters,  in  which  there  is  not  a 
style  nor  a  tint  not  known  to  him,  yet  with  an  English 
appetite  for  action  and  heroes.  The  thing  done  avails, 
and  not  what  is  said  about  it.  An  original  sentence, 
a  step  forward,  is  worth  more  than  all  the  censures. 
Landor  is  strangely  undervalued  iu  England;  usually  ig- 
nored; and  sometimes  savagely  attacked  in  the  Reviews. 
The  criticism  may  be  right  or  wrong,  and  is  quickly 
forgotten;  but  year  after  year  the  scholar  must  still 
go  back  to  Landor  for  a  multitude  of  elegant  senten- 
ces, —  for  wisdom,  wit,  and  indignation  that  are  uufor- 
getable. 

From  London,  on  the  5th  August,  I  went  to  Highgate, 
and  wrote  a  note  to  Mr.  Coleridge,  requesting  leave  to 
pay  my  respects  to  him.  It  was  near  noon.  Mr.  Cole- 
ridge sent  a  verbal  message,  that  he  was  in  bed,  but  if 
I  would  call  after  one  o'clock,  he  would  see  me.  I  re- 
turned at  one,  and  he  appeared,  a  short,  thick  old  man, 
with  bright  blue  eyes  and  fine  clear  complexion,  leaning 
on  his  cane.  He  took  snuff  freely,  which  presently  soiled 
his  cravat  and  neat  black  suit.  He  asked  whether  I  knew 
Allston,  and  spoke  warmly  of  his  merits  and  doings  when 
he  knew  him  iu  Rome  ;  what  a  master  of  the  Titianesque 


FIRST    VISIT    TO    ENGLAND.  13 

he  was,  etc.,  etc.  He  spoke  of  Dr.  Charming.  It  was 
an  unspeakable  misfortune  that  he  should  have  turned 
out  a  Unitarian  after  all.  On  this,  he  burst  into  a  decla- 
mation on  the  folly  and  ignorance  of  Unitarianism,  —  its 
high  unreasonableness ;  and  taking  up  Bishop  Water- 
land's  book,  which  lay  on  the  table,  he  read  with  vehe- 
mence two  or  three  pages  written  by  himself  in  the 
fly-leaves,  —  passages,  too,  which,  I  believe,  are  printed 
in  the  "  Aids  to  Reflection."  When  he  stopped  to  take 
breath,  I  interposed,  that,  "  whilst  I  highly  valued  all  his 
explanations,  I  was  bound  to  tell  him  that  I  was  born 
and  bred  a  Unitarian."  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  I  supposed 
so  "  ;  and  continued  as  before.  '  It  was  a  wonder,  that 
after  so  many  ages  of  unquestioning  acquiescence  in  the 
doctrine  of  St.  Paul,  —  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  which 
was  also,  according  to  Philo  Judaeus,  the  doctrine  of  the 
Jews  before  Christ,  —  this  handful  of  Priestleians  should 
take  on  themselves  to  deny  it,  etc.,  etc.  He  was  very 
sorry  that  Dr.  Channing,  —  a  man  to  whom  he  looked 
up,  —  no,  to  say  that  he  looked  up  to  him  would  be  to 
speak  falsely;  but  a  man  whom  he  looked  at  with  so 
much  interest,  —  should  embrace  such  views.  When  he 
saw  Dr.  Channing,  he  had  hinted  to  him  that  he  was 
afraid  he  loved  Christianity  for  what  was  lovely  and  excel- 
lent, —  he  loved  the  good  in  it,  and  not  the  true  ;  and  I 
tell  you,  sir,  that  I  have  known  ten  persons  who  loved 
the  good,  for  one  person  who  loved  the  true ;  but  it  is  a 
far  greater  virtue  to  love  the  true  for  itself  alone,  than  to 
love  the  good  for  itself  alone.  He  (Coleridge)  knew  all 
about  Unitarianism  perfectly  well,  because  he  had  once 
been  a  Unitarian,  and  knew  what  quackery  it  was.  He 


14  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

had  been  called  "  the  rising  star  of  Unitarianism."  '  He 
went  on  defining,  or  rather  refining :  '  The  Trinitarian 
doctrine  was  realism ;  the  idea  of  God  was  not  essential, 
but  super-essential ' ;  talked  of  trinism  and  tetrakism,  and 
much  more,  of  which  I  only  caught  this  :  '  that  the  will 
was  that  by  which  a  person  is  a  person ;  because,  if  one 
should  push  me  in  the  street,  and  so  I  should  force  the 
man  next  me  into  the  kennel,  I  should  at  once  exclaim, 
"  I  did  not  do  it,  sir,"  meaning  it  was  not  my  will.'  And 
this  also  :  '  that  if  you  should  insist  on  your  faith  here  in 
England,  and  I  on  mine,  mine  would  be  the  hotter  side  of 
the  fagot.' 

I  took  advantage  of  a  pause  to  say,  that  he  had  many 
readers  of  all  religious  opinions  in  America,  and  I  pro- 
ceeded to  inquire  if  the  "extract"  from  the  Indepen- 
dent's pamphlet,  in  the  third  volume  of  the  Friend,  were 
a  veritable  quotation.  He  replied  that  it  was  really  taken 
from  a  pamphlet  in  his  possession,  entitled  "  A  Protest 
of  one  of  the  Independents,"  or  something  to  that  effect. 
I  told  him  how  excellent  I  thought  it,  and  how  much  I 
wished  to  see  the  entire  work.  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  the 
man  was  a  chaos  of  truths,  but  lacked  the  knowledge  that 
God  was  a  god  of  order.  Yet  the  passage  would  no 
doubt  strike  you  more  in  the  quotation  than  in  the  origi- 
nal, for  I  have  filtered  it." 

When  I  rose  to  go,  he  said,  "  I  do  not  know  whether 
you  care  about  poetry,  but  I  will  repeat  some  verses  I 
lately  made  on  my  baptismal  anniversary "  ;  and  he  re- 
cited with  strong  emphasis,  standing,  ten  or  twelve  lines, 
beginning,  — 

"  Born  unto  God  in  Christ  —  " 


FIRST    VISIT    TO    ENGLAND.  15 

He  inquired  where  I  had  been  travelling;  and  on  learn- 
ing that  I  had  been  in  Malta  and  Sicily,  he  compared  one 
island  with  the  other,  '  repeating  what  he  had  said  to  the 
Bishop  of  London  when  he  returned  from  that  country, 
that  Sicily  was  an  excellent  school  of  political  economy ; 
for,  iu  any  town  there,  it  only  needed  to  ask  what  the 
government  enacted,  and  reverse  that  to  know  what 
ought  to  be  done  ;  it  was  the  most  felicitously  opposite 
legislation  to  anything  good  and  wise.  There  were  only 
three  things  which  the  government  had  brought  into 
that  garden  of  delights,  namely,  itch,  pox,  and  famine; 
whereas,  in  Malta,  the  force  of  law  and  mind  was  seen, 
in  making  that  barren  rock  of  semi-Saracen  inhabitants 
the  seat  of  population  and  plenty.'  Going  out,  he 
showed  me  in  the  next  apartment  a  picture  of  Allston's, 
and  told  me  '  that  Montague,  a  picture-dealer,  once  came 
to  see  him,  and,  glancing  towards  this,  said,  "  Well,  you 
have  got  a  picture !  "  thinking  it  the  work  of  an  old  mas- 
ter ;  afterwards,  Montague,  still  talking  with  his  back  to 
the  canvas,  put  up  his  hand  and  touched  it,  and  exclaimed, 
"  By  Heaven  !  this  picture  is  not  ten  years  old  "  :  —  so 
delicate  and  skilful  was  that  man's  touch.' 

I  was  in  his  company  for  about  an  hour,  but  find  it 
impossible  to  recall  the  largest  part  of  his  discourse, 
which  was  often  like  so  many  printed  paragraphs  in  his 
book,  —  perhaps  the  same, — so  readily  did  he  fall  into 
certain  commonplaces.  As  I  might  have  fores  en,  the 
visit  was  rather  a  spectacle  than  a  conversation,  of  no  use 
beyond  the  satisfaction  of  my  curiosity.  He  was  old  and 
preoccupied,  and  could  not  bend  to  a  new  companion  and 
think  with  him. 


16  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

Prom  Edinburgh  I  went  to  the  Highlands.  On  my 
return,  I  came  from  Glasgow  to  Dumfries,  and  being 
intent  on  delivering  a  letter  which  I  had  brought  from 
Rome,  inquired  for  Oaigenputtock.  It  was  a  farm  in 
Nithsdale,  in  the  parish  of  Dunscore,  sixteen  miles  dis- 
tant. No  public  coacli  passed  near  it,  so  I  took  a  private 
carriage  from  the  inn.  I  found  the  house  amid  desolate 
heathery  hills,  where  the  lonely  scholar  nourished  his 
mighty  heart.  Carlyle  was  a  man  from  his  youth,  an 
author  who  did  not  need  to  hide  from  his  readers,  and  as 
absolute  a  man  of  the  world,  unknown  and  exiled  on  that 
hill-farm,  as  if  holding  on  his  own  terms  what  is  best  in 
London.  He  was  tall  and  gaunt,  with  a  cliff-like  brow, 
self-possessed,  and  holding  his  extraordinary  powers  of 
conversation  in  easy  command ;  clinging  to  his  northern 
accent  with  evident  relish;  full  of  lively  anecdote,  and 
with  a  streaming  humor,  which  floated  everything  he 
looked  upon.  His  talk  playfully  exalting  the  familiar 
objects,  put  the  companion  at  once  into  an  acquaintance 
with  his  Lars  and  Lemurs,  and  it  was  very  pleasant  to 
learn  what  was  predestined  to  be  a  pretty  mythology. 
Few  were  the  objects  and  lonely  the  man,  "  not  a  person 
to  speak  to  within  sixteen  miles  except  the  minister  of 
Dunscore  " ;  so  that  books  inevitably  made  his  topics. 

He  had  names  of  his  own  for  all  the  matters  familiar 
to  his  discourse.  "Blackwood's  "  was  the  "  sand  maga- 
zine " ;  "  Eraser's  "  nearer  approach  to  possibility  of  life 
was  the  "  mud  magazine  "  ;  a  piece  of  road  near  by  that 
marked  some  failed  enterprise  was  the  "grave  of  the  last 
sixpence."  When  too  much  praise  of  any  genius  annoyed 
him,  he  professed  hugely  to  admire  the  talent  shown  by 


FIRST    VISIT    TO    ENGLAND.  17 

his  pig.  He  had  spent  much  time  and  contrivance  in 
confining  the  poor  beast  to  one  enclosure  in  his  pen,  but 
pig,  by  great  strokes  of  judgment,  had  found  out  how  to 
let  a  board  down,  and  had  foiled  him.  For  all  that,  he 
still  thought  man  the  most  plastic  little  fellow  in  the 
planet,  and  he  liked  Nero's  death,  "Quails  artifex pereo ! " 
better  than  most  history.  He  worships  a  man  that  will 
manifest  any  truth  to  him.  At  one  time  he  had  inquired 
and  read  a  good  deal  about  America.  Landor's  principle 
was  mere  rebellion,  and  that  he  feared  was  the  American 
principle.  The  best  thing  he  knew  of  that  country  was, 
that  in  it  a  man  can  have  meat  for  his  labor.  He  had 
read  in  Stewart's  book,  that  when  he  inquired  in  a  New 
York  hotel  for  the  Boots,  he  had  been  shown  across  the 
street  and  had  found  Mungo  in  his  own  house  dining  on 
roast  turkey. 

We  talked  of  books.  Plato  he  does  not  read,  and  he 
disparaged  Socrates;  and,  when  pressed,  persisted  in 
making  Mirabeau  a  hero.  Gibbon  he  called  the  splendid 
bridge  from  the  old  world  to  the  new.  His  own  read- 
ing had  been  multifarious.  Tristram  Shandy  was  one  of 
his  first  books  after  Robinson  Crusoe,  and  Robertson's 
America  an  early  favorite.  Rousseau's  Confessions  had 
discovered  to  him  that  he  was  not  a  dunce ;  and  it  was 
now  ten  years  since  he  had  learned  German,  by  the  advice 
of  a  man  who  told  him  he  would  find  in  tliat  language 
what  he  wanted. 

He  took  despairing  or  satirical  views  of  literature  at 
this  moment ;  recounted  the  incredible  sums  paid  in  one 
year  by  the  great  booksellers  for  puffing.  Hence  it 
comes  that  no  newspaper  is  trusted  now,  no  books  are 


18  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

bought,  and  the  booksellers  are  on  the  eve  of  bank- 
ruptcy. 

He  still  returned  to  English  pauperism,  the  crowded 
country,  the  selfish  abdication  by  public  men  of  all  that 
public  persons  should  .perform.  '  Government  should 
direct  poor  men  what  to  do.  Poor  Irish  folk  come  wan- 
dering over  these  moors.  My  dame  makes  iv  *  _ule  to 
give  to  every  sou  of  Adam  bread  to  eat,  and  supplies  his 
wants  to  the  next  house.  But  here  are  thousands  of 
acres  which  might  give  them  all  meat,  and  nobody  to  bid 
these  poor  Irish  go  to  the  moor  and  till  it.  They  burned 
the  stacks,  and  so  found  a  way  to  force  the  rich  people 
to  attend  to  them.' 

We  went  out  to  walk  over  long  hills,  and  looked  at 
Criifel,  then  without  his  cap,  and  down  into  Words- 
worth's country.  There  we  sat  down,  and  talked  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul.  It  was  not  Carlyle's  fault  that 
we  talked  on  that  topic,  for  he  had  the  natural  disinclina- 
tion of  every  nimble  spirit  to  bruise  itself  against  walls, 
and  did  not  like  to  place  himself  where  no  step  can  be 
taken.  But  he  was  honest  and  true,  and  cognizant  of 
the  subtile  links  that  bind  ages  together,  and  saw  how 
every  event  affects  all  the  future.  '  Christ  died  on  the 
tree :  that  built  Dunscore  kirk  yonder :  that  brought  you 
and  ine  together.  Time  has  only  a  relative  existence.' 

He  was  already  turning  his  eyes  towards  London  with 
a  scholar's  appreciation.  London  is  the  heart  of  the 
world,  he  said,  wonderful  only  from  the  mass  of  human 
beings.  He  liked  the  huge  machine.  Each  keeps  its 
own  round.  The  baker's  boy  brings  muffins  to  the 
window  at  a  fixed  hour  every  day,  and  that  is  all  the 


FIRST     VISIT     TO     ENGLAND.  19 

Londoner  knows  or  wishes  to  know  on  the  subject.  But 
it  turned  out  good  men.  He  named  certain  individuals, 
especially  one  man  of  letters,  his  friend,  the  best  mind  he 
knew,  whom  London  had  well  served. 

On  the  28th  August,  I  went  to  Rydal  Mount,  to  pay 
my  respects  to  Mr.  Wordsworth.  His  daughters  called 
in  their  father,  a  plain,  elderly,  white-haired  man,  not 
prepossessing,  and  disfigured  by  green  goggles.  He  sat 
down,  and  talked  with  great  simplicity.  He  had  just  re- 
turned from  a  journey.  His  health  was  good,  but  he  had 
broken  a  tooth  by  a  fall,  when  walking  with  two  lawyers, 
and  had  said,  that  he  was  glad  it  did  not  happen  forty 
years  ago;  whereupon  they  had  praised  his  philosophy. 

He  had  much  to  say  of  America,  the  more  that  it  gave 
occasion  for  his  favorite  topic,  —  that  society  is  being  en- 
lightened by  a  superficial  tuition,  out  of  all  proportion  to 
its  being  restrained  by  moral  culture.  Schools  do  no 
good.  Tuition  is  not  education.  He  thinks  more  of  the 
education  of  circumstances  than  of  tuition.  'T  is  not  a 
question  whether  there  are  offences  of  which  the  law  takes 
cognizance,  but  whether  there  are  offences  of  which  the 
law  does  not  take  cognizance.  Sin  is  what  he  fears,  and 
how  society  is  to  escape  without  gravest  mischiefs  from 
this  source  —  ?  He  has  even  said,  what  seemed  a  para- 
dox, that  they  needed  a  civil  war  in  America,  to  teach  the 
necessity  of  knitting  the  social  ties  stronger.  'There 
may  be,'  he  said,  'in  America  some  vulgarity  in  man- 
ner,  but  that  's  not  important.  That  comes  of  the  pio< 
neer  state  of  things.  But  I  fear  they  are  too  much  given 
to  the  making  of  money  ;  and  secondly,  to  politics ;  that 


20  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

they  make  political  distinction  the  end,  and  not  the 
means.  And  I  fear  they  lack  a  class  of  men  of  leisure,  — 
in  short,  of  gentlemen,  —  to  give  a  tone  of  honor  to  the 
community.  I  am  told  that  things  are  boasted  of  in  the 
second  class  of  society  there,  which,  in  England,  —  God 
knows,  are  done  in  England  every  day, — but  would 
never  be  spoken  of.  In  America  I  wish  to  know  not  how 
many  churches  or  schools,  but  what  newspapers?  My 
friend,  Colonel  Hamilton,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  who  was 
a  year  in  America,  assures  me  that  the  newspapers  are 
atrocious,  and  accuse  members  of  Congress  of  stealing 
spoons ! '  He  was  against  taking  off  the  tax  on  news- 
papers in  England,  which  the  reformers  represent  as  a 
tax  upon  knowledge,  for  this  reason,  that  they  would  be 
inundated  with  base  prints.  He  said,  he  talked  on  politi- 
cal aspects,  for  lie  wished  to  impress  on  me  and  all  good 
Americans  to  cultivate  the  moral,  the  conservative,  etc.. 
etc.,  and  never  to  call  into  action  the  physical  strength  of 
the  people,  as  had  just  now  been  done  in  England  in  the 
Reform  Bill, — a  thing  prophesied  by  Delolme.  He 
alluded  once  or  twice  to  his  conversation  with  Dr.  Chan- 
ning,  who  had  recently  visited  him  (laying  his  hand  on  a 
particular  chair  in  which  the  Doctor  had  sat). 

The  conversation  turned  on  books.  Lucretius  he  es- 
teems a  far  higher  poet  than  Virgil :  not  in  his  system, 
which  is  nothing,  but  in  his  power  of  illustration.  Faith 
is  necessary  to  explain  anything,  and  to  reconcile  the 
foreknowledge  of  God  with  human  evil.  Of  Cousin 
(whose  lectures  we  had  all  been  reading  in  Boston)  he 
knew  only  the  name. 

I  inquired  if  he  had  read  Carlyle's  critical  articles  and 


FIRST    VISIT    TO     ENGLAND.  21 

translations.  He  said  lie  thought  him  sometimes  insane. 
He  proceeded  to  abuse  Goethe's  Wilhelm  Meister  heart- 
ily. It  was  full  of  all  manner  of  fornication.  It  was 
like  the  crossing  of  flies  in  the  air.  He  had  never  gone 
further  than  the  first  part ;  so  disgusted  was  he  that  he 
threw  the  book  across  the  room.  I  deprecated  this 
wrath,  and  said  what  I  could  for  the  better  parts  of  the 
book ;  and  he  courteously  promised  to  look  at  it  again. 
Carlyle,  he  said,  wrote  most  obscurely.  He  was  clever 
and  deep,  but  he  defied  the  sympathies  of  everybody. 
Even  Mr.  Coleridge  wrote  more  clearly,  though  he  had 
always  wished  Coleridge  would  write  more  to  be  under- 
stood. He  led  me  out  into  his  garden,  and  showed  me 
the  gravel-walk  in  which  thousands  of  his  lines  were 
composed.  His  eyes  are  much  inflamed.  This  is  no 
loss,  except  for  reading,  because  he  never  writes  prose, 
and  of  poetry  he  carries  even  hundreds  of  lines  in.  his 
head  before  writing  them.  He  had  just  returned  from  a 
visit  to  Staffa,  and  within  three  days  had  made  three 
sonnets  on  FingaPs  Cave,  and  was  composing  a  fourth, 
when  he  was  called  in  to  see  me.  He  said,  "  If  you  are 
interested  in  my  verses,  perhaps  you  will  like  to  hear 
these  lines."  I  gladly  assented ;  and  he  recollected  him- 
self for  a  few  moments,  and  then  stood  forth  and  re- 
peated, one  after  the  other,  the  three  entire  sonnets  with 
great  animation.  I  fancied  the  second  and  third  more 
beautiful  than  his  poems  are  wont  to  be.  The  third  is 
addressed  to  the  flowers,  which,  he  said,  especially  the 
ox-eye  daisy,  are  very  abundant  on  the  top  of  the  rock. 
The  second  alludes  to  the  name  of  the  cave,  which  is 
"  Cave  of  Music  " ;  the  first  to  the  circumstance  of  its 


22  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

being  visited  by  the  promiscuous  company  of  the  steam- 
boat. 

This  recitation  was  so  unlocked  for  and  surprising,  — 
he,  the  old  Wordsworth,  standing  apart,  and  reciting  to 
me  in  a  garden-walk,  like  a  school-boy  declaiming, — 
that  I  at  first  was  near  to  laugh ;  but  recollecting  my- 
self, that  I  had  come  thus  far  to  see  a  poet,  and  he  was 
chanting  poems  to  me,  I  saw  that  he  was  right  and  I  was 
wrong,  and  gladly  gave  myself  up  to  hear.  I  told  him 
how  much  the  few  printed  extracts  had  quickened  the 
desire  to  possess  his  unpublished  poems.  He  replied,  he 
never  was  in  haste  to  publish;  partly,  because  he  cor- 
rected a  good  deal,  and  every  alteration  is  ungraciously 
received  after  printing ;  but  what  he  had  written  would 
be  printed,  whether  he  lived  or  died.  I  said,  "  Tintern 
Abbey  "  appeared  to  be  the  favorite  poem  with  the  pub- 
lic, but  more  contemplative  readers  preferred  the  first 
books  of  the  "  Excursion,"  and  the  Sonnets.  He  said, 
"  Yes,  they  are  better."  He  preferred  such  of  his  poems 
as  touched  the  affections,  to  any  others ;  for  whatever  is 
didactic  —  what  theories  of  society,  and  so  on  —  might 
perish  quickly ;  but  whatever  combined  a  truth  with  an 
affection  was  HTT^O.  es  ati,  good  to-day  and  good  forever. 
He  cited  the  sonnet  "  On  the  feelings  of  a  high-minded 
Spaniard,"  which  he  preferred  to  any  other  (I  so  under- 
stood him),  and  the  "  Two  Voices  "  ;  and  quoted,  with 
evident  pleasure,  the  verses  addressed  "To  the  Skylark." 
la  this  connection,  he  said  of  the  Newtonian  theory,  that 
it  might  yet  be  superseded  and  forgotten ;  and  Dalton's 
atomic  theory. 

When  I  prepared  to  depart,  he  said  he  wished  to  show 


VOYAGE     TO     ENGLAND.  23 

me  what  a  common  person  in  England  could  do,  and  he 
led  me  into  the  enclosure  of  his  clerk,  a  young  man,  to 
whom  he  had  given  this  slip  of  ground,  which  was  laid 
out,  or  its  natural  capabilities  shown,  with  much  taste. 
He  then  said  he  would  show  me  a  better  way  towards 
the  inn  ;  and  he  walked  a  good  part  of  a  mile,  talking, 
and  ever  and  anon  stopping  short  to  impress  the  word  or 
the  verse,  and  finally  parted  from  me  with  great  kindness, 
and  returned  across  the  fields. 

Wordsworth  honored  himself  by  his  simple  adherence 
to  truth,  and  was  very  willing  not  to  shine  ;  but  he  sur- 
prised by  the  hard  limits  of  his  thought.  To  judge  from 
a  single  conversation,  he  made  the  impression  of  a  nar- 
row and  very  English  mind ;  of  one  who  paid  for  his 
rare  elevation  by  general  lameness  and  conformity.  Off 
his  own  beat,  his  opinions  were  of  no  value.  It  is  not 
very  rare  to  find  persons  loving  sympathy  and  ease,  who 
expiate  their  departure  from  the  common  in  oue  direc- 
tion, by  their  conformity  in  every  other. 


CHAPTER   II. 

VOYAGE    TO   ENGLAND. 

1  HE  occasion  of  my  second  visit  to  England  was  an 
invitation  from  some  Mechanics'  Institutes  in  Lancashire 
and  Yorkshire,  which  separately  are  organized  much  in 
the  same  way  as  our  New  England  Lyceums,  but,  in 
1847,  had  been  linked  into  a  "Union,"  which  embraced 
twenty  or  thirty  towns  and  cities,  and  presently  extended 


24  KNOLTSII     TRAITS. 

into  the  middle  counties,  and  northward  into  Scotland. 
I  was  invited,  on  liberal  terms,  to  read  a  series  of  lec- 
tures in  them  all.  The  request  was  urged  with  every 
kind  suggestion,  and  every  assurance  of  aid  and  comfort, 
by  friendliest  parties  in  Manchester,  who,  in  the  sequel, 
amply  redeemed  their  word.  The  remuneration  was 
equivalent  to  the  fees  at  that  time  paid  in  this  country 
for  the  like  services.  At  all  events,  it  was  sufficient  to 
cover  any  travelling  expenses,  and  the  proposal  offered 
an  excellent  opportunity  of  seeing  the  interior  of  England 
and  Scotland,  by  means  of  a  home,  and  a  committee  of 
intelligent  friends,  awaiting  me  in  every  town. 

I  did  not  go  very  willingly.  I  am  not  a  good  travel- 
ler, nor  have  I  found  that  long  journeys  yield  a  fair 
share  of  reasonable  hours.  But  the  invitation  was  re- 
peated and  pressed  at  a  moment  of  more  leisure,  and 
when  I  was  a  little  spent  by  some  unusual  studies.  I 
wanted  a  change  and  a  tonic,  and  England  was  proposed 
to  me.  Besides,  there  were,  at  least,  the  dread  attrac- 
tion and  salutary  influences  of  the  sea.  So  I  took  my 
berth  in  the  packet-ship  Washington  Irving,  and  sailed 
from  Boston  on  Tuesday,  5th  October,  1847. 

On  Friday,  at  noon,  we  had  only  made  one  hundred 
and  thirty-four  miles.  A  nimble  Indian  would  have 
swum  as  far;  but  the  captain  affirmed  that  the  ship 
would  show  us  in  time  all  her  paces,  and  we  crept  along 
through  the  floating  drift  of  boards,  logs,  and  chips, 
which  the  rivers  of  Maine  and  New  Brunswick  pour  into 
the  sea  after  a  freshet. 

At  last,  on  Sunday  night,  after  doing  one  day's  work  in 
four,  the  storm  came,  the  winds  blew,  and  we  flew  before 


VOYAGE     TO    ENGLAND.  25 

a  northwester,  which  strained  every  rope  and  sail.  The 
good  ship  darts  through  the  water  all  day,  all  night,  like 
a  fish,  quivering  with  speed,  gliding  through  liquid 
leagues,  sliding  from  horizon  to  horizon.  She  has  passed 
Cape  Sable ;  slie  has  reached  the  Banks  ;  the  land-birds 
are  left ;  gulls,  haglets,  ducks,  petrels,  swim,  dive,  and 
hover  around  ;  no  fishermen;  she  has  passed  the  Banks  ; 
left  five  sail  behind  her,  far  on  the  edge  of  the  west  at 
sundown,  which  were  far  east  of  us  at  morn,  —  though 
they  say  at  sea  a  stern  chase  is  a  long  race,  —  and  still 
we  fly  for  our  lives.  The  shortest  sea-line  from  Boston 
to  Liverpool  is  2,850  miles.  This  a  steamer  keeps,  and 
saves  150  miles.  A  sailing  ship  can  never  go  in  a  shorter 
line  than  3,000,  and  usually  it  is  much  longer.  Our  good 
master  keeps  his  kites  up  to  the  last  moment,  studding- 
sails  alow  and  aloft,  and,  by  incessant  straight  steering, 
never  loses  a  rod  of  way.  Watchfulness  is  the  law  of 
the  ship,  —  watch  on  watch,  for  advantage  and  for  life. 
Since  the  ship  was  built,  it  seems,  the  master  never  slept 
but  in  his  day-clothes  whilst  on  board.  "There  are 
many  advantages,"  says  Saadi,  "  in  sea-voyaging,  but 
security  is  not  one  of  them."  Yet  in  hurrying  over  these 
abysses,  whatever  dangers  we  are  running  into,  we  are 
certainly  running  out  of  the  risks  of  hundreds  of  miles 
every  day,  which  have  their  own  chances  of  squall,  col- 
lision, sea-stroke,  piracy,  cold,  and  thunder.  Hour  for 
hour,  the  risk  on  a  steamboat  is  greater ;  but  the  speed 
is  safety,  or  twelve  days  of  danger,  instead  of  twenty- 
four. 

Our  ship  was  registered  750  tons,  and  weighed  per- 
haps, with  all  her  freight,  1,500  tons.     The  mainmast, 
2 


26  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

from  the  deck  to  the  top-button,  measured  115  feet;  the 
length  of  the  deck,  from  stem  to  stern,  155.  It  is  im- 
possible not  to  personify  a  ship ;  everybody  does  in  every- 
thing they  say  :  —  she  behaves  well ;  she  minds  her  rud- 
der; she  swims  like  a  duck;  she  runs  her  nose  into  the 
water ;  she  looks  into  a  port.  Then  that  wonderful  esprit 
du  corps,  by  which  M'e  adopt  into  our  self-love  every- 
thing we  touch,  makes  us  all  champions  of  her  sailing- 
qualities. 

The  conscious  ship  hears  all  the  praise.  In  one  week 
she  has  made  1,467  miles,  and  now,  at  night,  seems  to 
hear  the  steamer  behind  her,  which  left  Boston  to-day  at 
two,  has  mended  her  speed,  and  is  flying  before  the  gray 
south-wind  eleven  and  a  half  knots  the  hour.  The  sea- 
fire  shines  in  her  wake,  and  far  around  wherever  a  wave 
breaks.  I  read  the  hour,  9h.  45',  on  my  watch  by  this 
light.  Near  the  equator,  you  can  read  small  print  by 
it ;  and  the  mate  describes  the  phosphoric  insects,  when 
taken  up  in  a  pail,  as  shaped  like  a  Carolina  potato. 

I  find  the  sea-life  an  acquired  taste,  like  that  for  toma- 
toes and  olives.  The  confinement,  cold,  motion,  noise, 
and  odor  are  not  to  be  dispensed  with.  The  floor  of 
your  room  is  sloped  at  an  angle  of  twenty  or  thirty 
degrees,  and  I  waked  every  morning  with  the  belief  that 
some  one  was  tipping  up  my  berth.  Nobody  likes  to  be 
treated  ignominiously,  upset,  shoved  against  the  side  of 
the  house,  rolled  over,  suffocated  with  bilge,  mephitis, 
and  stewing  oil.  We  get  used  to  these  annoyances  at 
last,  but  the  dread  of  the  sea  remains  longer.  The  sea  is 
masculine,  the  type  of  active  strength.  Look,  what  egg- 
shells are  drifting  all  over  it,  each  one,  like  ours,  filled 


VOYAGE     TO    ENGLAND.  27 

with  men  in  ecstasies  of  terror,  alternating  with  cockney 
conceit,  as  the  sea  is  rough  or  smooth.  Is  this  sad-col- 
ored circle  an  eternal  cemetery  ?  In  our  graveyards  we 
scoop  a  pit,  but  this  aggressive  water  opens  mile-wide 
pits  and  chasms,  and  makes  a  mouthful  of  a  fleet.  To 
the  geologist,  the  sea  is  the  only  firmament ;  the  land  is 
in  perpetual  flux  and  change,  now  blown  up  like  a  tumor, 
now  sunk  in  a  chasm,  and  the  registered  observations  of 
a  few  hundred  years  find  it  in  a  perpetual  tilt,  rising  and 
falling.  The  sea  keeps  its  old  level ;  and  't  is  no  wonder 
that  the  history  of  our  race  is  so  recent,  if  the  roar  of  the 
ocean  is  silencing  our  traditions.  A  rising  of  the  sea, 
such  as  has  been  observed,  say  an  inch  in  a  century,  from 
east  to  west  on  the  land,  will  bury  all  the  towns,  monu- 
ments, bones,  and  knowledge  of  mankind,  steadily  and 
insensibly.  If  it  is  capable  of  these  great  and  secular 
mischiefs,  it  is  quite  as  ready  at  private  and  local  dam- 
age ;  and  of  this  no  landsman  seems  so  fearful  as  the  sea- 
man. Such  discomfort  and  such  danger  as  the  narratives 
of  the  captain  and  mate  disclose  are  bad  enough  as  the 
costly  fee  we  pay  for  entrance  to  Europe ;  but  the  won- 
der is  always  new  that  any  sane  man  can  be  a  sailor. 
.  And  here,  on  the  second  day  of  our  voyage,  stepped  out 
'a  little  boy  in  his  shirt-sleeves,  who  had  hid  himself, 
whilst  the  ship  was  in  port,  in  the  bread-closet,  having 
no  money,  and  wishing  U>  go  to  England.  The  sailors 
have  dressed  him  in  Guernsey  frock,  with  a  knife  in  his 
belt,  and  he  is  climbing  nimbly  about  after  them,  "  likes 
the  work  first-rate,  and,  if  the  captain  will  take  him,  means 
now  to  come  back  again  in  the  ship."  The  mate  avers 
that  this  is  the  history  of  all  sailors ;  nine  out  of  ten  are 


28  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

runaway  boys ;  and  adds,  tliat  all  of  them  are  sick  of  the 
sea,  but  stay  in  it  out  of  pride.  Jack  Las  a  life  of  risks, 
incessant  abuse,  and  the  worst  pay.  It  is  a  little  better 
with  the  male,  and  not  very  much  better  with  the  cap- 
tain. A  hundred  dollars  a  month  is  reckoned  high  pay. 
If  sailors  were  contented,  if  they  had  not  resolved  again 
and  again  not  to  go  to  sea  any  more,  I  should  respect 
them. 

Of  course,  the  inconveniences  and  terrors  of  the  sea 
are  not  of  any  account  to  those  whose  minds  are  pre- 
occupied. The  water-laws,  arctic  frost,  the  mountain, 
the  mine,  only  shatter  cockneyism ;  every  noble  activity 
makes  room  for  itself.  A  great  mind  is  a  good  sailor, 
as  a  great  heart  is.  And  the  sea  is  not  slow  in  disclosing 
inestimable  secrets  to  a  good  naturalist. 

'Tis  a  good  rule  in  every  journey  to  provide  some 
piece  of  liberal  study  to  rescue  the  hours  which  bad 
weather,  bad  company,  and  taverns  steal  from  the  best 
economist.  Classics  which  at  home  are  drowsily  read 
have  a  strange  charm  in  a  country  inn,  or  in  the  transom 
if  a  merchant  brig.  I  remember  that  some  of  the  hap- 
piest and  most  valuable  hours  I  have  owed  to  books, 
passed,  many  years  ago,  on  shipboard.  The  worst  im- 
pediment 1  have  found  at  sea  is  the  want  of  light  in  the 
cabin. 

We  found  on  board  the  usual  cabin  library;  Basil 
Hall,  Dumas,  Dickens,  Bulwer,  Balzac,  and  Sand  were 
our  sea-gods.  Among  the  passengers,  there  was  some 
variety  of  talent  and  profession ;  we  exchanged  our 
experiences,  and  all  learned  something.  The  busiest 
talk  with  leisure  and  convenience  at  sea,  and  sometimes 


VOYAGE    TO    ENGLAND. 

a  memorable  fact  turns  up,  which  you  have  long  had  a 
vacant  niche  for,  and  seize  with  the  joy  of  a  collector. 
But,  under  the  best  conditions,  a  voyage  is  one  of  the 
severest  tests  to  try  a  man.  A  college  examination  is 
nothing  to  it.  Sea-days  are  long,  —  these  lack-lustre, 
joyless  days  which  whistled  aver  us ;  but  they  were  few, 
—  only  fifteen,  as  the  captain  counted,  sixteen  according 
to  me.  Reckoned  from  the  time  when  we  left  soundings, 
our  speed  was  such  that  the  captain  drew  the  line  of  his 
course  in  red  ink  on  his  chart,  for  the  encouragement 
or  envy  of  future  navigators. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  King  of  England  would  con- 
sult his  dignity  by  giving  audience  to  foreign  ambassa- 
dors in  the  cabin  of  a  man-of-war.  And  I  think  the 
white  path  of  an  Atlantic  ship  the  right  avenue  to  the 
palace  front  of  this  sea-faring  people,  who  for  hundreds 
of  years  claimed  the  strict  sovereignty  of  the  sea,  and 
exacted  toll  and  the  striking  sail  from  the  ships  of  all 
other  peoples.  When  their  privilege  was  disputed  by 
the  Dutch  and  other  junior  marines,  on  the  plea  that  you 
could  never  anchor  on  the  same  wave,  or  hold  property  iu 
what  was  always  flowing,  the  English  did  not  stick  to 
claim  the  channel,  or  bottom  of  all  the  main.  "  As  if," 
said  they,  "  we  contended  for  the  drops  of  the  sea,  and 
not  for  its  situation,  or  the  bed  of  those  waters.  The  sea 
is  bounded  by  his  Majesty's  empire." 

As  we  neared  the  land,  its  genius  was  felt.  This  was 
inevitably  the  British  side.  In  every  man's  thought 
arises  now  a  new  system,  English  sentiments,  English 
loves  and  fears,  English  history  and  social  modes.  Yes- 
terday, every  passenger  had  measured  the  speed  of  the 


30  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

ship  by  watching  the  bubbles  over  the  ship's  bulwarks. 
To-day,  instead  of  bubbles,  we  measure  by  Kinsale,  Cork, 
Watertbrd,  and  Ardmore.  There  lay  the  green  shore  of 
Ivelaud,  like  some  coast  of  plenty.  We  could  see  towns, 
towers,  churches,  harvests ;  but  the  curse  of  eight  hun- 
dred years  we  could  not  discern. 


CHAPTER    III. 


ALFIERI  thought  Italy  and  England  the  only  countries 
worth  living  hi :  the  former,  because  there  Nature  vin- 
dicates her  rights,  and  triumphs  over  the  evils  inflicted 
by  the  governments;  the  latter,  because  art  conquers 
nature,  and  transforms  a  rude,  uugenial  land  into  a  para- 
dise of  comfort  and  plenty.  England  is  a  garden.  Un- 
der an  ash-colored  sky,  the  fields  have  been  combed  and 
rolled  till  they  appear  to  have  been  finished  with  a  pencil 
instead  of  a  plough.  The  solidity  of  the  structures  that 
compose  the  towns  speaks  the  industry  of  ages.  Nothing 
is  left  as  it  was  made.  Rivers,  hills,  valleys,  the  sea 
itself,  feel  the  hand  of  a  master.  The  long  habitation  of 
a  powerful  and  ingenious  race  has  turned  every  rood  of 
land  to  its  best  use,  has  found  all  the  capabilities,  the 
arable  soil,  the  quarriable  rock,  the  highways,  the  by- 
ways, the  fords,  the  navigable  waters;  and  the  new  arts 
of  intercourse  meet  you  everywhere ;  so  that  England  is 
a  huge  phalanstery,  where  all  that  man  wants  is  provided 
within  the  precinct.  Cushioned  and  comforted  hvevery 


LAND.  31 

-nanner,  the  traveller  rides  as  on  a  cannon-ball,  high  and 
low,  over  rivers  and  towns,  through  mountains,  in  tun- 
nels of  three  or  four  miles,  at  near  twice  the  speed  of  our 
trains ;  and  reads  quietly  the  Times  newspaper,  which, 
by  its  immense  correspondence  and  reporting,  seems  to 
have  machinized  the  rest  of  the  world  for  his  occasion. 

The  problem  of  the  traveller  landing  at  Liverpool  is, 
Why  England  is  England.  What  are  the  elements  of 
that  power  which  the  English  hold  over  other  nations  ? 
If  there  be  one  test  of  national  genius  universally 
accepted,  it  is  success;  and  if  there  be  one  successful 
country  in  the  universe  for  the  last  millennium,  that 
country  is  England. 

A  wise  traveller  will  naturally  choose  to  visit  the  best 
of  actual  nations ;  and  an  American  has  more  reasons 
than  another  to  draw  him  to  Britain.  In  all  that  is  done 
or  begun  by  the  Americans  towards  right  thinking  or 
practice,  we  are  met  by  a  civilization  already  settled  and 
overpowering.  The  culture  of  the  day,  the  thoughts  and 
aims  of  men,  are  English  thoughts  and  aims.  A  nation 
considerable  for  a  thousand  years  since  Egbert,  it  has,  in 
the  last  centuries,  obtained  the  ascendant,  and  stamped 
the  knowledge,  activity,  and  power  of  mankind  with  its 
impress.  Those  who  resist  it  do  not  feel  it  or  obey  it 
less.  The  Russian  in  his  snows  is  aiming  to  be  English. 
The  Turk  and  Chinese  also  are  making  awkward  efforts 
to  be  English.  The  practical  common-sense  of  modern 
society,  the  utilitarian  direction  which  labor,  laws,  opin- 
ion, religion,  take,  is  the  natural  genius  of  the  British 
mind.  The  influence  of  France  is  a  constituent  of  modern 
civility,  but  not  enough  opposed  to  the  English  for  the 


32  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

most  wholesome  effect.  The  American  is  only  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  English  genius  into  new  conditions,  more 
or  less  propitious. 

See  what  books  fill  our  libraries.  Every  book  we  re;:d, 
every  biography,  play,  romance,  in  whatever  form,  is  still 
English  history  and  manners.  So  that  a  sensible  English- 
man once  said  to  me,  "  As  long  as  you  do  not  grant  us 
copyright,  we  shall  have  the  teaching  of  you." 

But  we  have  the  same  difficulty  in  making  a  social  or 
moral  estimate  of  England,  as  the  sheriff  finds  in  drawing 
a  jury  to  try  some  cause  which  has  agitated  the  whole 
community,  and  on  which  everybody  finds  himself  an 
interested  party.  Officers,  jurors,  judges,  have  all  taken 
sides.  England  has  inoculated  all  nations  with  her  civil- 
ization, intelligence,  and  tastes ;  and,  to  resist  the  tyranny 
and  prepossession  of  the  British  element,  a  serious  man 
must  aid  himself,  by  comparing  with  it  the  civilizations 
of  the  farthest  east  and  west,  the  old  Greek,  the  Oriental, 
and,  much  more,  the  ideal  standard,  if  only  by  means  of 
the  very  impatience  which  English  forms  are  sure  to 
awaken  in  independent  minds. 

Besides,  if  we  will  visit  London,  the  present  time  is 
the  best  time,  as  some  signs  portend  that  it  has  reached 
its  highest  point.  It  is  observed  that  the  English  interest 
us  a  little  less  within  a  few  years;  and  hence  the  im- 
pression that  the  British  power  has  culminated,  is  in 
solstice,  or  already  declining. 

As  soon  as  you  enter  England,  which,  with  Wales,  is 
no  larger  than  the  State  of  Georgia,*  this  little  land 

*  Add  South  Carolina,  and  you  have  more  than  an  equivalent 
for  the  area  of  Scotland. 


LAND.  33 

stretches  by  an  illusion  to  the  dimensions  of  an  empire. 
The  innumerable  details,  the  crowded  succession  of 
towns,  cities,  cathedrals,  castles,  and  great  and  decorated 
estates,  the  number  and  power  of  the  trades  and  guilds, 
the  military  strength  and  splendor,  the  multitudes  of  rich 
and  of  remarkable  people,  the  servants  and  equipages,  — 
all  these  catching  the  eye,  and  never  allowing  it  to  pause, 
hide  all  boundaries,  by  the  impression  of  magnificence 
and  endless  wealth. 

I  reply  to  all  the  urgencies  that  refer  me  to  this  and 
that  object  indispensably  to  be  seen,  —  Yes,  to  see  Eng- 
land well  needs  a  hundred  years ;  for,  what  they  told  me 
was  the  merit  of  Sir  John  Soane's  Museum,  in  London, 
—  that  it  was  well  packed  and  well  saved,  —  is  the  merit 
of  England ;  — it  is  stuffed  full,  in  all  corners  and  crevices, 
with  towns,  towers,  churches,  villas,  palaces,  hospitals, 
and  charity-houses.  In  the  history  of  art,  it  is  a  long 
way  from  a  cromlech  to  York  minster ;  yet  all  the  inter- 
mediate steps  may  still  be  traced  in  this  all-preserving 
island. 

The  territory  has  a  singular  perfection.  The  climate 
is  warmer  by  many  degrees  than  it  is  entitled  to  by  lat- 
itude. Neither  hot  nor  cold,  there  is  no  hour  in  the 
whole  year  when  one  cannot  work.  Here  is  no  winter, 
but  such  days  as  we  have  in  Massachusetts  in  November, 
a  temperature  which  makes  no  exhausting  demand  on 
human  strength,  but  allows  the  attainment  of  the  largest 
stature.  Charles  the  Second  said,  "It  invited  men 
abroad  more  days  in  the  year  and  more  hours  in  the  day 
than  another  country."  Then  England  has  all  the  mate- 
rials of  a  working  country  except  wood.  The  constant 

2*  C 


34  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

rain  —  a  rain  with  every  tide,  in  some  parts  of  the  island 
—  keeps  its  multitude  of  rivers  full,  and  brings  agricul- 
tural production  up  to  the  highest  point.  It  has  plenty 
of  water,  of  stone,  of  potter's  clay,  of  coal,  of  salt,  and  of 
iron.  The  laud  naturally  abounds  with  game,  immense 
heaths  and  downs  are  paved  with  quails,  grouse,  and 
woodcock,  and  the  shores  are  animated  by  water-birds. 
The  rivers  and  the  surrounding  sea  spawn  with  fish; 
there  are  salmon  for  the  rich,  and  sprats  and  herrings  for 
the  poor.  In  the  northern  lochs,  the  herring  are  in 
innumerable  shoals;  at  one  season,  the  country  people 
say,  the  lakes  contain  one  part  water  and  two  parts  fish. 

The  only  drawback  on  this  industrial  conveniency  is 
the  darkness  of  its  sky.  The  night  and  day  are  too  nearly 
of  a  color.  It  strains  the  eyes  to  read  and  to  write.  Add 
the  coal-smoke.  In  the  manufacturing  towns,  the  fine 
soot  or  blacks  darken  the  day,  give  white  sheep  the  color 
of  black  sheep,  discolor  the  human  saliva,  contaminate 
the  air,  poison  many  plants,  and  corrode  the  monuments 
and  buildings. 

The  London  fog  aggravates  the  distempers  of  the  sky, 
and  sometimes  justifies  the  epigram  on  the  climate  by  an 
English  wit,  "  in  a  fine  day,  looking  up  a  chimney ;  in  a 
foul  day,  looking  down  one."  A  gentleman  in  Liverpool 
told  me  that  he  found  he  could  do  without  a  fire  in  his 
parlor  about  one  day  in  the  year.  It  is  however  pre- 
tended, that  the  enormous  consumption  of  coal  in  the 
island  is  also  felt  in  modifying  the  general  climate. 

Factitious  climate,  factitious  position.  England  re- 
sembles a  ship  in  its  shape,  and,  if  it  were  one,  its  best 
admiral  could  not  have  worked  it,  or  anchored  it  in  a 


LAND.  35 

more  judicious  or  effective  position.  Sir  John  Herschel 
said,  "  London  was  tlie  centre  of  the  terrene  globe." 
The  shopkeeping  nation,  to  use  a  shop  word,  has  a  good 
stand.  The  old  Venetians  pleased  themselves  with  the 
flattery,  that  Venice  was  in  45°,  midway  between  the 
poles  and  the  line  ;  as  if  that  were  an  imperial  centrality. 
Long  of  old,  the  Greeks  fancied  Delphi  the  navel  of  the 
earth,  in  their  favorite  mode  of  fabling  the  earth  to  be  an 
animal.  The  Jews  believed  Jerusalem  to  be  the  centre. 
I  have  seen  a  kratometric  chart  designed  to  show  that 
tlie  city  of  Philadelphia  was  in  the  same  thermic  belt, 
and,  by  inference,  in  the  same  belt  of  empire,  as  the 
cities  of  Athens,  Rome,  and  London.  It  was  drawn  by  a 
patriotic  Philadelphia!!,  and  was  examined  with  pleasure, 
under  his  showing,  by  the  inhabitants  of  Chestnut  Street. 
But,  when  carried  to  Charleston,  to  New  Orleans,  and  to 
Boston,  it  somehow  failed  to  convince  the  ingenious 
scholars  of  all  those  capitals. 

But  England  is  anchored  at  the  side  of  Europe,  and 
right  in  the  heart  of  the  modern  world.  The  sea,  which, 
according  to  Virgil's  famous  line,  divided  the  poor 
Britons  utterly  from  the  world,  proved  to  be  the  ring  of 
marriage  with  all  nations.  It  is  not  down  in  the  books, 
—  it  is  written  only  in  the  geologic  strata, — that  fortu- 
nate day  when  a  wave  of  the  German  Ocean  burst  the  old 
isthmus  which  joined  Kent  and  Cornwall  to  France,  and 
gave  to  this  fragment  of  Europe  its  impregnable  sea-wall, 
cutting  off  an  island  of  eight  hundred  miles  in  length, 
with  an  irregular  breadth  reaching  to  three  hundred 
miles ;  a  territory  large  enough  for  independence  en- 
riched with  every  seed  of  national  power,  so  near,  that  it 


36  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

can  see  the  harvests  of  the  continent ;  and  so  far,  that 
who  would  cross  the  strait  must  be  an  expert  mariner, 
ready  for  tempests.  As  America,  Europe,  and  Asia  lie, 
these  Britons  have  precisely  the  best  commercial  position 
in  the  whole  planet,  and  are  sure  of  a  market  for  all  the 
goods  they  can  manufacture.  And  to  make  these  advan- 
tages avail,  the  river  Thames  must  dig  its  spacious  outlet 
to  the  sea  from  the  heart  of  the  kingdom,  giving  road  and 
lauding  to  innumerable  ships,  and  all  the  conveniency  to 
trade,  that  a  people  so  skilful  and  sufficient  in  economiz- 
ing water-front  by  docks,  warehouses,  and  lighters  re- 
quired. When  James  the  First  declared  his  purpose  of 
punishing  London  by  removing  his  Court,  the  Lord 
Mayor  replied,  "  that,  in  removing  his  royal  presence  from 
his  lieges,  they  hoped  he  would  leave  them  the  Thames." 
In  the  variety  of  surface,  Britain  is  a  miniature  of 
Europe,  having  plain,  forest,  marsh,  river,  sea-shore; 
mines  in  Cornwall ;  caves  in  Matlock  and  Derbyshire ; 
delicious  landscape  in  Dovedale,  delicious  sea-view  at  Tor 
Bay,  Highlands  in  Scotland,  Snowdou  in  "Wales ;  and, 
in  Westmoreland  and  Cumberland,  a  pocket  Switzerland, 
in  which  the  lakes  and  mountains  are  on  a  sufficient  scale 
to  fill  the  eye  and  touch  the  imagination.  It  is  a  nation 
conveniently  small.  Fontenelle  thought,  that  nature  had 
sometimes  a  little  affectation ;  and  there  is  such  an  arti- 
ficial completeness  in  this  nation  of  artificers,  as  if  there 
were  a  design  from  the  beginning  to  elaborate  a  bigger 
Birmingham.  Nature  held  counsel  with  herself,  and  said, 
'  My  Romans  are  gone.  To  build  my  new  empire,  I  will 
choose  a  rude  race,  all  masculine,  with  brutish  strength. 
I  will  not  grudge  a  competition  of  the  roughest  males. 


RACE.  37 

Let  buffalo  gore  buffalo,  and  the  pasture  to  the  strong- 
est !  For  I  have  work  that  requires  the  best  will  and 
sinew.  Sharp  and  temperate  northern  breezes  shall  blow, 
to  keep  that  will  alive  and  alert.  The  sea  shall  disjoin 
the  people  from  others,  and  knit  them  to  a  fierce  nation- 
ality. It  shall  give  them  markets  on  every  side.  Long 
time  I  will  keep  them  on  their  feet,  by  poverty,  border- 
wars,  sea-faring,  sea-risks,  and  the  stimulus  of  gain.  An 
island,  —  but  not  so  large,  the  people  not  so  many  as  to 
glut  the  great  markets  and  depress  one  another,  but  pro- 
portioned to  the  size  of  Europe  and  the  continents.' 

With  its  fruits,  and  wares,  and  money,  must  its  civil 
influence  radiate.  It  is  a  singular  coincidence  to  this 
geographic  centrality,  the  spiritual  centrality,  which 
Smanuel  Swedenborg  ascribes  to  the  people.  "  For  the 
English  nation,  the  best  of  them  are  in  the  centre  of  all 
Christians,  because  they  have  interior  intellectual  light. 
This  appears  conspicuously  in  the  spiritual  world.  This 
light  they  derive  from  the  liberty  of  speaking  and  writing, 
and  thereby  of  thinking." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

EACE. 

AN  ingenious  anatomist  has  written  a  book*  to  prove 
that  races  are  imperishable,  but  nations  are  pliant  politi- 
cal constructions,  easily  changed  or  destroyed.  But  this 
writer  did  not  found  his  assumed  races  on  any  necessary 

*  The  Races,  a  Fragment.     By  Robert  Knox.     London :  1850. 


38  ENGLISH    TltAITS. 

law,  disclosing  their  ideal  or  metaphysical  necessity ;  nor 
did  he,  on  the  other  hand,  count  with  precision  the  exist- 
ing races,  and  settle  the  true  bounds ;  a  point  of  nicety, 
and  the  popular  test  of  the  theory.  The  individuals  at 
the  extremes  of  divergence  in  one  race  of  men  are  as  un- 
like as  the  wolf  to  the  lapdog.  Yet  each  variety  shades 
down  imperceptibly  into  the  next,  and  you  cannot  draw 
the  line  where  a  race  begins  or  ends.  Hence  every  writer 
makes  a  different  count.  Blumenbach  reckons  five  races ; 
Humboldt,  three ;  and  Mr.  Pickering,  who  lately,  in  our 
Exploring  Expedition,  thinks  he  saw  all  the  kinds  of  men 
that  can  be  on  the  planet,  makes  eleven. 

The  British  Empire  is  reckoned  to  contain  (in  1848) 
222,000,000  souls,  —  perhaps  a  fifth  of  the  population 
of  the  globe ;  and  to  comprise  a  territory  of  5,000,000 
square  miles.  So  far  have  British  people  predominated. 
Perhaps  forty  of  these  millions  are  of  British  stock.  Add 
the  United  States  of  America,  which  reckon  (in  the  same 
year),  exclusive  of  slaves,  20,000,000  of  people,  on  a 
territory  of  3,000,000  square  miles,  and  in  which  the 
foreign  element,  however  considerable,  is  rapidly  assimi- 
lated, and  you  have  a  population  of  English  descent  and 
language,  of  60,000,000,  and  governing  a  population  of 
245,000,000  souls. 

The  British  census  proper  reckons  twenty-seven  and  a 
half  millions  in  the  home  countries.  What  makes  this 
census  important  is  the  quality  of  the  units  that  compose 
it.  They  are  free  forcible  men,  in  a  country  where  lite  is 
safe,  and  has  reached  the  greatest  value.  They  give  the 
bias  to  the  current  age;  and  that,  not  by  chance  or  by 
mass,  but  by  their  character,  and  by  the  number  of  indi- 


11 A  0  E .  39 

viduals  among  them  of  personal  ability.  It  has  been  de- 
nied that  the  English  have  genius.  Be  it  as  it  may,  men 
of  vast  intellect  have  been  bora  on  their  soil,  and  they 
have  made  or  applied  the  principal  inventions.  They 
have  sound  bodies,  and  supreme  endurance  in  war  and  in 
labor.  The  spawning  force  of  the  race  has  sufficed  to 
the  colonization  of  great  parts  of  the  world ;  yet  it  re- 
mains to  be  seen  whether  they  can  make  good  the  exodus 
of  millions  from  Great  Britain,  amounting,  in  1852,  to 
more  than  a  thousand  a  day.  They  have  assimilating 
force,  since  they  are  imitated  by  their  foreign  subjects ; 
and  they  are  still  aggressive  and  propagandist,  enlarging 
the  dominion  of  their  arts  and  liberty.  Their  laws  are 
hospitable,  and  slavery  does  not  exist  under  them.  What 
oppression  exists  is  incidental  and  temporary ;  their  suc- 
cess is  not  sudden  or  fortunate,  but  they  have  maintained 
constancy  and  self-equality  for  many  ages. 

Is  this  power  due  to  their  race,  or  to  some  other  cause  ? 
Man  hear  gladly  of  the  power  of  blood  or  race.  Every- 
body likes  to  know  that  his  advantages  cannot  be  attrib- 
uted to  air,  soil,  sea,  or  to  local  wealth,  as  mines  and  quar- 
ries, nor  to  laws  and  traditions,  nor  to  fortune,  but  to  su- 
perior brain,  as  it  makes  the  praise  more  personal  to  him. 

We  anticipate  in  the  doctrine  of  race  something  like 
that  law  of  physiology,  that,  whatever  bone,  muscle,  or 
essential  organ  is  found  in  one  healthy  individual,  the 
same  part  or  organ  may  be  found  in  or  near  the  same 
place  in  its  congener;  and  we  look  to  find  in  the  son 
every  mental  and  moral  property  that  existed  in  the 
ancestor.  In  race,  it  is  not  the  broad  shoulders,  or  lithe- 
ness,  or  stature  that  give  advantage,  but  a  symmetry  that 


40  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

reaches  as  far  as  to  the  wit.  Then  the  miracle  and  re- 
iiovra  begin.  Then  first  we  care  to  examine  the  pedigree, 
and  copy  heedfully  the  training,  —  what  food  they  ate, 
what  nursing,  school,  and  exercises  they  had,  which  re- 
sulted in  this  mother-wit,  delicacy  of  thought,  and  robust 
wisdom.  How  came  such  men  as  King  Alfred,  and 
Roger  Bacon,  William  of  Wykeham,  Walter  Raleigh, 
Philip  Sidney,  Isaac  Newton,  William  Shakspeare,  George 
Chapman,  Francis  Bacon,  George  Herbert,  Henry  Vane, 
to  exist  here  ?  What  made  these  delicate  natures  ?  was 
it  the  air  ?  was  it  the  sea  ?  was  it  the  parentage  ?  For 
it  is  certain  that  these  men  are  samples  of  their  contem- 
poraries. The  hearing  ear  is  always  found  close  to  the 
speaking  tongue;  and  no  genius  can  long  or  often  utter 
anything  which  is  not  invited  and  gladly  entertained  by 
men  around  him. 

It  is  race,  is  it  not?  that  puts  the  hundred  millions  of 
India  under  the  dominion  of  a  remote  island  in  the  north 
of  Europe.  Race  avails  much,  if  that  be  true,  which  is 
alleged,  that  all  Celts  are  Catholics,  and  all  Saxons  are 
Protestants ;  that  Celts  love  unity  of  power,  and  Saxons 
the  representative  principle.  Race  is  a  controlling  in- 
fluence in  the  Jew,  who,  for  two  millenniums,  under 
every  climate,  has  preserved  the  same  character  and 
employments.  Race  in  the  negro  is  of  appalling  impor- 
tance. The  French  in  Canada,  cut  off  from  all  inter- 
course with  the  parent  people,  have  held  their  national 
traits.  I  chanced  to  read  Tacitus  "  on  the  Manners  of 
the  Germans,"  not  long  since,  in  Missouri,  and  the 
heart  of  Illinois,  and  I  found  abundant  points  of  resem- 
blance between  the  Germans  of  the  Hercyman  forest, 


RACE.  41 

and  our  Hoosiers,  Suckers,  and  Badgers  of  the  American 
woods. 

But  whilst  race  works  immortally  to  keep  its  own,  it 
is  resisted  by  other  forces.  Civilization  is  a  re-agent, 
and  eats  away  the  old  traits.  The  Arabs  of  to-day  are 
the  Arabs  of  Pharaoh  ;  but  the  Briton  of  to-day  is  a  very 
different  person  from  Cassibelaunus  or  Ossian.  Each 
religious  sect  has  its  physiognomy.  The  Methodists 
have  acquired  a  face ;  the  Quakers,  a  face ;  the  nuns,  a 
face.  An  Englishman  will  pick  out  a  dissenter  by  his 
manners.  Trades  aud  professions  carve  their  own  lines 
on  face  and  form.  Certain  circumstances  of  English 
life  are  not  less  effective :  as,  personal  liberty ;  plenty  of 
food  ;  good  ale  and  mutton ;  open  market,  or  good  wages 
for  every  kind  of  labor;  high  bribes  to  talent  and  skill; 
the  island  life,  or  the  million  opportunities  aud  outlets 
for  expanding  and  misplaced  talent;  readiness  of  com- 
bination among  themselves  for  politics  or  for  business  ; 
strikes ;  and  sense  of  superiority  founded  on  habit  of 
victory  in  labor  and  in  war ;  and  the  appetite  for  su- 
periority grows  by  feeding. 

It  is  easy  to  add  to  the  counteracting  forces  to  race. 
Credence  is  a  main  element.  'T  is  said,  that  the  views  of 
nature  held  by  any  people  determine  all  their  institutions. 
Whatever  influences  add  to  mental  or  moral  faculty,  take 
men  out  of  nationality,  as  out  of  other  conditions,  and 
make  the  national  life  a  culpable  compromise. 

These  limitations  of  the  formidable  doctrine  of  race 
suggest  others  which  threaten  to  undermine  it,  as  not 
sufficiently  based.  The  fixity  or  iiiconvertibleuess  of 
races  as  we  see  them,  is  a  weak  argument  for  the  eter- 


42'  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

nity  of  these  frail  boundaries,  since  all  our  historical 
period  is  a  point  to  the  duration  in  which  nature  has 
wrought.  Any  the  least  and  solitariest  fact  in  our  natu- 
ral history;  such  as  the  melioration  of  fruits  and  of  ani- 
mal stocks,  has  the  worth  of  a  power  in  the  opportunity 
of  geologic  periods.  Moreover,  though  we  flatter  the 
self-love  of  men  and  nations  by  the  legend  of  pure  races, 
all  our  experience  is  of  the  gradation  and  resolution  of 
races,  and  strange  resemblances  meet  us  everywhere.  It 
need  not  puzzle  us  that  Malay  and  Papuan,  Celt  and 
Roman,  Saxon  and  Tartar,  should  mix,  when  we  see  the 
rudiments  of  tiger  and  baboon  in  our  human  form,  and 
know  that  the  barriers  of  races  are  not  so  firm,  but  that 
some  spray  sprinkles  us  from  the  antediluvian  seas. 

The  low  organizations  are  simplest ;  a  mere  mouth, 
a  jelly,  or  a  straight  worm.  As  the  scale  mounts,  the 
organizations  become  complex.  We  are  piqued  with 
pure  descent,  but  nature  loves  inoculation.  A  child 
blends  in  his  face  the  faces  of  both  parents,  and  some 
feature  from  every  ancestor  whose  face  hangs  on  the 
wall.  The  best  nations  are  those  most  widely  related; 
and  navigation,  as  effecting  a  world-wide  mixture,  is  the 
most  potent  advancer  of  nations. 

The  English  composite  character  betrays  a  mixed  ori- 
gin. Every  tiling  English  is  a  fusion  of  distant  and  an- 
tagonistic elements.  The  language  is  mixed  ;  the  names 
of  men  are  of  different  nations,  — three  languages,  three 
or  four  nations  ;  —  the  currents  of  thought  are  counter : 
contemplation  and  practical  skill;  active  intellect  and 
dead  conservatism  ;  world-wide  enterprise,  and  devoted 
use  and  wont ;  aggressive  freedom  and  hospit  able  law, 


RACE.  43 

with  bitter  class  legislation ;  a  people  scattered  by  their 
wars  and  affairs  over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  and 
homesick  to  a  man  ;  a  country  of  extremes,  —  dukes  and 
chartists,  Bishops  of  Durham  and  naked  heathen  colliers  ; 
—  nothing  can  be  praised  in  it  without  damning  excep- 
tions, and  nothing  denounced  without  salvos  of  cordial 
praise. 

Neither  do  this  people  appear  to  be  of  one  stem ;  but 
collectively  a  better  race  than  any  from  which  they  are 
derived.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  trace  it  home  to  its  original 
seats.  Who  can  call  by  right  names  what  races  are  in 
Britain?  Who  can  trace  them  historically?  Who  can 
discriminate  them  anatomically,  or  metaphysically? 

In  the  impossibility  of  arriving  at  satisfaction  on  the 
historical  question  of  race,  and  —  come  of  whatever  dis- 
putable ancestry  —  the  indisputable  Englishman  before 
me,  himself  very  well  marked,  and  nowhere  else  to  be 
found,  —  I  fancied  I  could  leave  quite  aside  the  choice  of 
a  tribe  as  his  lineal  progenitors.  Defoe  said  in  his  wrath, 
"  the  Englishman  was  the  mud  of  all  races."  I  incline 
to  the  belief  that,  as  water,  lime,  and  sand  make  mortar, 
so  certain  temperaments  marry  well,  and,  by  well-man- 
aged contrarieties,  develop  as  drastic  a  character  as  the 
English.  On  the  whole,  it  is  not  so  much  a  history  of 
one  or  of  certain  tribes  of  Saxons,  Jules,  or  Frisians, 
coming  from  one  place,  and  genetically  identical,  as  it  is 
an  anthology  of  temperaments  out  of  them  all.  Certain 
temperaments  suit  the  sky  and  soil  of  England,  say  eight 
or  ten  or  twenty  varieties,  as,  out  of  a  hundred  pear- 
trees,  eight  or  ten  suit  the  soil  of  an  orchard,  and  thrive, 
whilst  all  the  unadapted  temperaments  die  out. 


44  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

The  English  derive  their  pedigree  from  such  a  range 
of  nationalities,  that  there  needs  sea-room  and  land-room 
to  unfold  the  varieties  of  talent  and  character.  Perhaps 
the  ocean  serves  as  a  galvanic  battery  to  distribute  acids 
at  one  pole,  and  alkalies  at  the  other.  So  England 
tends  to  accumulate  her  Liberals  in  America,  and  her 
conservatives  at  London.  The  Scandinavians  in  her  race 
still  hear  in  every  age  the  murmurs  of  their  mother,  the 
ocean;  the  Briton  in  the  blood  hugs  the  homestead  still. 

Again,  as  if  to  inteusate  the  influences  that  are  not  of 
race,  what  we  think  of  when  we  talk  of  English  traits 
really  narrows  itself  to  a  small  district.  It  excludes 
Ireland,  and  Scotland,  and  Wales,  and  reduces  itself 
at  last  to  London,  that  is,  to  those  who  come  and 
go  thither.  The  portraits  that  hang  on  the  walls  in  the 
Academy  Exhibition  at  London,  the  figures  in  Punch's 
drawings  of  the  public  men,  or  of  the  club-houses,  the 
prints  in  the  shop-windows,  are  distinctive  English,  and 
not  American,  no,  nor  Scotch,  nor  Irish  :  but 't  is  a  very 
restricted  nationality.  As  you  go  north  into  the  manu- 
facturing and  agricultural  districts,  and  to  the  population 
that  never  travels,  as  you  go  into  Yorkshire,  as  you  enter 
Scotland,  the  world's  Englishman  is  no  longer  found. 
In  Scotland,  there  is  a  rapid  loss  of  all  grandeur  of  mien 
and  manners ;  a  provincial  eagerness  and  acuteness  ap- 
pear ;  the  poverty  of  the  country  makes  itself  remarked, 
and  a  coarseness  of  manners;  and,  among  the  intellec- 
tual, is  the  insanity  of  dialectics.  In  Ireland,  are  the 
same  climate  and  soil  as  in  England,  but  less  food,  no 
right  relation  to  the  land,  political  dependence,  small 
tenantry,  and  an  inferior  or  misplaced  race. 


RACE.  45 

These  queries  concerning  ancestry  and  blood  may  be 
well  allowed,  for  there  is  no  prosperity  that  seems  more 
to  depend  on  the  kind  of  man  than  British  prosperity. 
Only  a  hardy  and  wise  people  could  have  made  this  small 
territory  great.  We  say,  in  a  regatta  or  yacht-race,  that 
if  the  boats  are  anywhere  nearly  matched,  it  is  the  man 
that  wins.  Put  the  best  sailing-master  into  either  boat, 
and  he  will  win.  • 

Yet  it  is  fine  for  us  to  speculate  in  face  of  unbroken 
traditions,  though  vague,  and  losing  themselves  in  fable. 
The  traditions  have  got  footing,  and  refuse  to  be  dis- 
turbed. The  kitchen  clock  is  more  convenient  than 
sidereal  time.  We  must  use  the  popular  category,  as  we 
do  by  the  Linnsean  classification,  for  convenience,  and  not 
as  exact  and  final.  Otherwise,  we  are  presently  con- 
founded, when  the  best-settled  traits  of  one  race  are 
claimed  by  some  new  ethnologist  as  precisely  character- 
istic of  the  rival  tribe. 

I  found  plenty  of  well-marked  English  types,  the 
ruddy  complexion  fair  and  plump,  robust  men,  with  faces 
cut  like  a  die,  and  a  strong  island  speech  and  accent; 
a  Norman  type,  with  the  complacency  that  belongs  to 
that  constitution.  Others,  who  might  be  Americans,  for 
anything  that  appeared  in  their  complexion  or  form  :  and 
their  speech  was  much  less  marked,  and  their  thought 
much  less  bound.  We  will  call  them  Saxons.  Then 
the  Roman  has  implanted  his  dark  complexion  in  the 
trinity  or  quaternity  of  bloods. 

1.  The  sources  from  which  tradition  derives  their 
stock  are  mainly  three.  And,  first,  they  are  of  the 


46  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

oldest  blood  of  the  world,  —  the  Celtic.  Some  peoples 
are  deciduous  or  transitory.  Where  are  the  Greeks? 
where  the  Etrurians  ?  where  the  Romans  ?  But  the 
Celts  or  Sidonides  are  an  old  family,  of  whose  beginning 
there  is  no  memory,  and  their  end  is  likely  to  be  still 
more  remote  in  the  future;  for  they  have  endurance  and 
productiveness.  They  planted  Britain,  and  gave  to  the 
seas  and  tnountains  names  which  are  poems,  and  imitate 
the  pure  voices  of  nature.  They  are  favorably  remem- 
bered in  the  oldest  records  of  Europe.  They  had  no 
violent  feudal  tenure,  but  the  husbandman  owned  the 
land.  They  had  an  alphabet,  astronomy,  priestly  culture, 
and  a  sublime  creed.  They  have  a  hidden  and  precarious 
genius.  They  made  the  best  popular  literature  of  the 
Middle  Ages  in  the  songs  of  Merlin,  and  the  tender  and 
delicious  mythology  of  Arthur. 

2.  The  English  come  mainly  from  the  Germans,  whom 
the  Romans  found  hard  to  conquer  in  two  hundred  and 
ten  years,  —  say,   impossible   to   conquer,  —  when  one 
remembers  the  long  sequel ;  a  people  about  whom,  in  the 
old  empire,  the  rumor  ran,  there  was  never  any  that  med- 
dled with  them  that  repented  it  not. 

3.  Charlemagne,  halting  one  day  in  a  town  of  Nar- 
bonnese  Gaul,  looked  out  of  a  window,  and  saw  a  fleet 
of  Northmen  cruising  in  the  Mediterranean.     They  even 
entered  the  port  of  the  town  where  he  was,  causing  no 
small  alarm  and  sudden  manning  and  arming  of  his  gal- 
leys.    As  they  put  out  to  sea  again,  the  emperor  gazed 
long  after  them,  his  eyes  bathed  in  tears.     "  I  am  tor- 
mented with  sorrow,"  he  said,  "  when  I  foresee  the  evils 
they  will   bring   on   my  posterity."     There  was    reason 


RACE.  47 

for  these  Xerxes'  tears.  The  men  who  have  built  a  ship 
and  invented  the  rig,  —  cordage,  sail,  compass,  and 
pump,  —  the  working  in  and  out  of  port,  have  acquired 
much  more  than  a  ship.  Now  arm  them,  and  every 
shore  is  at  their  mercy.  For,  if  they  have  not  numerical 
superiority  where  they  anchor,  they  have  only  to  sail  a 
mile  or  two  to  find  it.  Bonaparte's  art  of  war,  namely, 
of  concentrating  force  on  the  point  of  attack,  must  always 
be  theirs  who  have  the  choice  of  the  battle-ground.  Of 
course  they  come  into  the  fight  from  a  higher  ground  of 
power  than  the  land-nations  ;  and  can  engage  them  on 
shore  with  a  victorious  advantage  in  the  retreat.  As 
soon  as  the  shores  are  sufficiently  peopled  to  make 
piracy  a  losing  business,  the  same  skill  and  courage  are 
ready  for  the  service  of  trade. 

The  Heimskrinyla*  or  Sagas  of  the  Kings  of  Norway, 
collected  by  Snorro  Sturleson,  is  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey 
of  English  history.  Its  portraits,  like  Homer's,  are 
strongly  individualized.  The  Sagas  describe  a  monarchi- 
cal republic  like  Sparta.  The  government  disappears 
before  the  importance  of  citizens.  In  Norway,  no  Per- 
sian masses  fight  and  perish  to  aggrandize  a  king,  but 
the  actors  are  bonders  or  landholders,  every  one  of 
whom  is  named  and  personally  and  patronymically  de- 
scribed, as  the  king's  friend  and  companion.  A  sparse 
population  gives  this  high  worth  to  every  man.  Individ- 
uals are  often  noticed  as  very  handsome  persons,  which 
trait  only  brings  the  story  nearer  to  the  English  race. 
Then  the  solid  material  interest  predominates,  so  dear  to 

*  Heimskringla.  Translated  by  Samuel  Laing,  Esq.  Lon- 
don:  1844. 


48  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

English  understanding,  wherein  the  association  is  logical, 
between  merit  and  land.  The  heroes  of  the  Sagas  are 
not  the  knights  of  South  Europe.  No  vaporing  of 
France  and  Spain  lias  corrupted  them.  They  are  sub- 
stantial farmers,  whom  the  rough  times  have  forced  to 
defend  their  properties.  They  have  weapons  which  they 
use  in  a  determined  manner,  by  no  means  for  chivalry, 
but  for  their  acres.  They  are  people  considerably 
advanced  in  rural  arts,  living  amphibiously  on  a  rough 
coast,  and  drawing  half  their  food  from  the  sea,  and  half 
from  the  land.  They  have  herds  of  cows,  and  malt, 
wheat,  bacon,  butter,  and  cheese.  They  fish  in  the  fiord, 
and  hunt  the  deer.  A  king  among  these  farmers  has  a 
varying  power,  sometimes  not  exceeding  the  authority  of 
a  sheriff.  A  king  was  maintained  much  as,  in  some  of 
our  country  districts,  a  winter-schoolmaster  is  quartered, 
a  week  here,  a  week  there,  and  a  fortnight  on  the  next 
farm,  —  on  all  the  farms  in  rotation.  This  the  king  calls 
going  into  guest-quarters;  and  it  was  the  only  way  in 
which,  in  a  poor  country,  a  poor  king,  with  many  retain- 
ers, could  be  kept  alive,  when  he  leaves  his  own  farm  to 
collect  his  dues  through  the  kingdom. 

These  Norsemen  are  excellent  persons  in  the  main, 
with  good  sense,  steadiness,  wise  speech,  and  prompt 
action.  But  they  have  a  singular  turn  for  homicide; 
their  chief  end  of  man  is  to  murder  or  to  be  murdered ; 
oars,  scythes,  harpoons,  crow-bars,  peat-knives,  and  hay- 
forks are  tools  valued  by  them  all  the  more  for  their 
charming  aptitude  for  assassinations.  A  pair  of  kings, 
after  dinner,  will  divert  themselves  by  thrusting  each  his 
sword  through  the  other's  body,  as  did  Yngve  and  Alf. 


RACE.  49 

Another  pair  ride  out  on  a  morning  for  a  frolic,  and, 
finding  no  weapon  near,  will  take  the  bits  out  of  their 
horses'  mouths,  and  crush  each  other's  heads  with  them, 
as  did  Alric  and  Eric.  The  sight  of  a  tent-cord  or  a 
cloak-string  puts  them  on  hanging  somebody,  a  wife,  or 
a  husband,  or,  best  of  all,  a  king.  If  a  farmer  has  so 
much  as  a  hayfork,  he  sticks  it  into  a  King  Dag.  King 
Ingiald  finds  it  vastly  amusing  to  burn  up  half  a  dozen 
kings  in  a  hall,  after  getting  them  drunk.  Never  was 
poor  gentleman  so  surfeited  with  life,  so  furious  to  be  rid 
of  it,  as  the  Northman.  If  he  cannot  pick  any  other 
quarrel,  he  will  get  himself  comfortably  gored  by  a  bull's 
horns,  like  Egil,  or  slain  by  a  land-slide,  like  the  agricul- 
tural King  Ouund.  Odin  died  in  his  bed,  in  Sweden ; 
but  it  was  a  proverb  of  ill  condition,  to  die  the  death  of 
old  age.  King  Hake  of  Sweden  cuts  and  slashes  in  bat- 
tle, as  long  as  he  can  stand,  then  orders  his  war-ship, 
loaded  with  his  dead  men  and  their  weapons,  to  be  taken 
out  to  sea,  the  tiller  shipped,  and  the  sails  spread ;  being 
left  alone,  he  sets  fire  to  some  tar-wood,  and  lies  down 
contented  on  deck.  The  wind  blew  off  the  land,  the  ship 
flew  burning  in  clear  flame,  out  between  tlie  islets  into  the 
ocean,  and  there  was  the  right  end  ot  King  Hake. 

The  early  Sagas  are  sanguinary  and  piratical ;  the  later 
are  of  a  noble  strain.  History  rarely  yields  us  better 
passages  than  the  conversation  between  King  Sigurd  the 
Crusader,  and  King  Eystein,  his  brother,  on  their  respec- 
tive merits,  —  one,  the  soldier,  and  the  other,  a  lover  of 
the  arts  of  peace. 

But  the  reader  of  the  Norman  history  must  steel  him- 
self by  holding  fast  the  remote  compensations  which 


50  ENGLISH     TKAITS. 

result  from  animal  vigor.  As  the  old  fossil  world  shows 
that  the  first  steps  of  reducing  the  chaos  were  confided 
to  saurians  and  other  huge  and  horrible  animals,  so  the 
foundations  of  the  new  civility  were  to  be  laid  by  the 
most  savage  men. 

The  Normans  came  out  of  France  into  England  worse 
men  than  they  went  into  it,  one  hundred  and  sixty  years 
before.  They  had  lost  their  own  language,  and  learned 
the  Romance  or  barbarous  Latin  of  the  Gauls  ;  and  had 
acquired,  with  the  language,  all  the  vices  it  had  names 
for.  The  conquest  has  obtained,  in  the  chronicles,  the 
name  of  the  "  memory  of  sorrow."  Twenty  thousand 
thieves  landed  at  Hastings.  These  founders  of  the 
House  of  Lords  were  greedy  and  ferocious  dragoons, 
sons  of  greedy  and  ferocious  pirates.  They  were  all 
alike,  they  took  everything  they  could  carry,  they  burned, 
harried,  violated,  tortured,  and  killed,  nntil  everything 
English  was  brought  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  Such,  how- 
ever, is  the  illusion  of  antiquity  and  wealth,  that  decent 
and  dignified  men  now  existing  boast  their  descent  from 
these  filthy  thieves,  who  showed  a  far  juster  conviction 
of  their  own  merits,  by  assuming  for  their  types  the 
swine,  goat,  jackal,  leopard,  wolf,  and  snake,  which  they 
severally  resembled. 

England  yielded  to  the  Danes  and  Northmen  in  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  and  was  the  receptacle  into 
which  all  the  mettle  of  that  strenuous  population  was 
poured.  The  continued  draught  of  the  best  men  in  Nor- 
way, Sweden,  and  Denmark,  to  these  piratical  expedi- 
tions, exhausted  those  countries,  like  a  tree  which  bears 
much  fruit  when  young,  and  these  have  been  second-rate 


RACE.  51 

powers  ever  since.  The  power  of  the  race  migrated,  and 
left  Norway  void.  King  Olaf  said  :  "  When  King  Har- 
old, my  father,  went  westward  to  England,  the  chosen 
men  in  Norway  followed  him  ;  but  Norway  was  so 
emptied  then,  that  such  men  have  not  since  been  to  find 
in  the  country,  nor  especially  such  a  leader  as  King  Har- 
old was  for  wisdom  and  bravery." 

It  was  a  tardy  recoil  of  these  invasions,  when,  in  1801, 
the  British  government  sent  Nelson  to  bombard  the  Dan- 
ish forts  in  the  Sound ;  and,  in  1807,  Lord  Cathcart,  at 
Copenhagen,  took  the  entire  Danish  fleet,  as  it  lay  in  the 
basins,  and  all  the  equipments  from  the  Arsenal,  and 
carried  them  to  England.  Konghelle,  the  town  where 
the  kings  of  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark  were  wont 
to  meet,  is  now  rented  to  a  private  English  gentleman 
for  a  hunting-ground. 

It  took  many  generations  to  trim,  and  comb,  and  per- 
fume the  first  boat-load  of  Norse  pirates  into  royal  high- 
nesses and  most  noble  Knights  of  the  Garter  :  but  every 
sparkle  of  ornament  dates  back  to  the  Norse  boat. 
There  will  be  time  enough  to  mellow  this  strength  into 
civility  and  religion.  It  is  a  medical  fact,  that  the  chil- 
dren of  the  blind  see ;  the  children  of  felons  have  a 
healthy  conscience.  Many  a  mean,  dastardly  boy  is,  at 
the  age  of  puberty,  transformed  into  a  serious  and  gen- 
erous youth. 

The  mildness  of  the  following  ages  has  not  quite 
effaced  these  traits  of  Odin ;  as  the  rudiment  of  a  struc- 
ture matured  in  the  tiger  is  said  to  be  still  found  unab- 
sorbed  in  the  Caucasian  man.  The  nation  has  a  tough, 
acrid,  animal  nature,  which  centuries  of  churching  and 


52  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

civilizing  have  not  been  able  to  sweeten.  Alfieri  said, 
"  the  crimes  of  Italy  were  the  proof  of  the  superiority  of 
the  stock " ;  and  one  may  say  of  England,  that  this 
watch  moves  on  a  splinter  of  adamant.  The  English 
uncultured  are  a  brutal  nation.  The  crimes  recorded  in 
their  calendars  leave  nothing  to  be  desired  in  the  way  of 
cold  malignity.  Dear  to  the  English  heart  is  a  fair 
stand-up  fight.  The  brutality  of  the  manners  in  the 
lower  class  appears  in  the  boxing,  bear-baiting,  cock- 
fighting,  love  of  executions,  and  in  the  readiness  for  a 
set-to  in  the  streets,  delightful  to  the  English  of  all 
classes.  The  costermongers  of  London  streets  hold  cow- 
ardice in  loathing :  —  "we  must  work  our  fists  well ;  we 
are  all  handy  with  our  fists."  The  public  schools  are 
charged  with  being  bear-gardens  of  brutal  strength,  and 
are  liked  by  the  people  for  that  cause.  The  fagging  is  a 
trait  of  the  same  quality.  Medwin,  in  the  Life  of  Shelley, 
relates,  that,  at  a  military  school,  they  rolled  up  a  young 
man  in  a  snowball,  and  left  him  so  in  his  room,  while  the 
other  cadets  went  to  church ;  —  and  crippled  him  for  life. 
They  have  retained  impressment,  deck-flogging,  army- 
flogging,  and  school-flogging.  Such  is  the  ferocity  of 
the  army  discipline,  that  a  soldier  sentenced  to  flogging, 
sometimes  prays  that  his  sentence  may  be  commuted  to 
death.  Flogging,  banished  from  the  armies  of  Western 
Europe,  remains  here  by  the  sanction  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington.  The  right  of  the  husband  to  sell  the  wife 
has  been  retained  down  to  our  times.  The  Jews  have 
been  the  favorite  victims  of  royal  and  popular  persecu- 
tion. Henry  III.  mortgaged  all  the  Jews  in  the  king- 
dom to  his  brother,  the  Earl  of  Cornwall,  as  security  for 


RACE.  53 

money  which  he  borrowed.  The  torture  of  criminals, 
and  the  rack  for  extorting  evidence,  were  slowly  disused. 
Of  the  criminal  statutes,  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  said,  "  I 
have  examined  the  codes  of  all  nations,  and  ours  is  the 
worst,  and  worthy  of  the  Anthropophagi."  In  the  last 
session  (1813),  the  House  of  Commons  was  listening  to 
details  of  flogging  and  torture  practised  in  the  jails. 

As  soon  as  this  land,  thus  geographically  posted,  got  a 
hardy  people  into  it,  they  could  not  help  becoming  the 
sailors  and  factors  of  the  globe.  From  childhood,  they 
dabbled  in  water,  they  swum  like  fishes,  their  playthings 
were  boats.  In  the  case  of  the  ship-money,  the  judges 
delivered  it  for  law,  that  "  England  being  an  island,  the 
very  midland  shires  therein  are  all  to  be  accounted  mar- 
itime "  :  and  Fuller  adds,  "the  genius  even  of  land-locked 
countries  driving  the  natives  with  a  maritime  dexterity." 
As  early  as  the  conquest,  it  is  remarked  in  explanatiou 
of  the  wealth  of  England,  that  its  merchants  trade  to  all 
countries. 

The  English,  at  the  present  day,  have  great  vigor  of 
body  and  endurance.  Other  countrymen  look  slight  and 
undersized  beside  them,  and  invalids.  They  are  bigger 
men  than  the  Americans.  I  suppose  a  hundred  English 
taken  at  random  out  of  the  street  would  weigh  a  fourth 
more  than  so  many  Americans.  Yet,  I  am  told,  the 
skeleton  is  not  larger.  They  are  round,  ruddy,  and 
handsome ;  at  least,  the  whole  bust  is  well  formed ;  and 
there  is  a  tendency  to  stout  and  powerful  frames.  I 
remarked  the  stoutness,  on  my  first  landing  at  Liverpool; 
porter,  drayman,  coachman,  guard,  —  what  substantial, 
respectable,  grandfathsrly  figures,  with  costume  and 


54  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

manners  to  suit.  The  American  has  arrived  at  the  old 
mansion-house,  and  finds  himself  among  uncles,  aunts, 
and  grandsires.  The  pictures  on  the  chimney-tiles  of  his 
nursery  were  pictures  of  these  people.  Here  they  are  in 
the  identical  costumes  and  air,  which  so  took  him. 

It  is  the  fault  of  their  forms  that  they  grow  stocky, 
and  the  women  have  that  disadvantage,  —  few  tall, 
slender  figures  of  flowing  shape,  but  stunted  and  thickset 
persons.  The  French  say,  that  the  Englishwomen  have 
two  left  hands.  But,  in  all  ages,  they  are  a  handsome 
race.  The  bronze  monuments  of  crusaders  lying  cross- 
legged,  in  the  Temple  Church  at  London,  and  those  in 
Worcester  and  in  Salisbury  Cathedrals,  which  are  seven 
hundred  years  old,  are  of  the  same  type  as  the  best 
youthful  heads  of  men  now  in  England ;  —  please  by 
beauty  of  the  same  character,  an  expression  blending 
good-nature,  valor,  and  refinement,  and,  mainly,  by  that 
uncorrupt  youth  in  the  face  of  manhood,  which  is  daily 
seen  in  the  streets  of  London. 

Both  branches  of  the  Scandinavian  race  are  distin- 
guished for  beauty.  The  anecdote  of  the  handsome  cap- 
tives which  Saint  Gregory  found  at  Rome,  A.  D.  600,  is 
matched  by  the  testimony  of  the  Norman  chroniclers,  five 
centuries  later,  who  wondered  at  the  beauty  and  long 
flowing  hair  of  the  young  English  captives.  Meantime, 
the  Heimskringla  has  frequent  occasion  to  speak  of  the 
personal  beauty  of  its  heroes.  When  it  is  considered 
what  humanity,  what  resources  of  mental  and  moral 
power,  the  traits  of  the  blond  race  betoken,  —  its  acces- 
sion to  empire  marks  a  new  and  finer  epoch,  wherein  the 
e}d  ra!Qer£fj  f°rc?  suall  be  subjugated  at  last  by  humanity, 


RACE.  55 

and  shall  plough  in  its  furrow  henceforward.  It  is  not 
a  final  race,  once  a  crab  always  crab,  but  a  race  with  a 
future. 

On  the  English  face  are  combined  decision  and  nerve, 
with  the  fair  complexion,  blue  eyes,  and  open  and  florid 
aspect.  Hence  the  love  of  truth,  hence  the  sensibility, 
the  fine  perception,  and  poetic  construction.  The  fair 
Saxon  man,  with  open  front,  and  honest  meaning, 
domestic,  affectionate,  is  not  the  wood  out  of  which 
cannibal,  or  inquisitor,  or  assassin  is  made.  But  he  is 
moulded  for  law,  lawful  trade,  civility,  marriage,  the 
nurture  of  children,  for  colleges,  churches,  charities,  and 
colonies. 

They  are  rather  manly  than  warlike.  When  the  war 
is  over,  the  mask  falls  from  the  affectionate  and  domestic 
tastes,  which  make  them  women  in  kindness.  This 
union  of  qualities  is  fabled  in  their  national  legend  of 
Beauty  and  the  Beast,  or  long  before,  in  the  Greek  legend 
of  Hermaphrodite.  The  two  sexes  are  co-present  in  the 
English  mind.  I  apply  to  Britannia,  queen  of  seas  and 
colonies,  the  words  in  Avhich  her  latest  novelist  portrays 
his  heroine  :  "  She  is  as  mild  as  she  is  game,  and  as  game 
as  she  is  mild."  The  English  delight  in  the  antagonism 
which  combines  in  one  person  the  extremes  of  courage 
and  tenderness.  Nelson,  dying  at  Trafalgar,  sends  his 
love  to  Lord  Collingwood,  and,  like  an  innocent  school- 
boy that  goes  to  bed,  says,  "  Kiss  me,  Hardy,"  and 
turns  to  sleep.  Lord  Collingwood,  his  comrade,  was  of 
a  nature  the  most  affectionate  and  domestic.  Admiral 
Rodney's  figure  approached  to  delicacy  and  effeminacy, 
<wd  he  declared  himself  very  sensible  to  fear,  which  he 


56  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

surmounted  only  by  considerations  of  honor  and  public 
duty.  Clarendon  says,  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  was  so 
modest  and  gentle,  that  some  courtiers  attempted  to 
put  affronts  on  him,  until  they  found  that  this  modesty 
and  effeminacy  was  only  a  mask  for  the  most  terrible 
determination.  And  Sir  Edward  Parry  said  of  Sir  John 
Franklin,  that,  "if  he  found  Wellington  Sound  open, 
he  explored  it ;  for  he  was  a  man  who  never  turned 
his  back  on  a  danger,  yet  of  that  tenderness,  that  he 
would  not  brush  away  a  mosquito."  Even  for  their 
highwaymen  the  same  virtue  is  claimed,  and  Robin  Hood 
comes  described  to  us  as  mitissimns  prtedonum,  the  gen- 
tlest thief.  But  they  know  where  their  war-dogs  lie. 
Cromwell,  Blake,  Marlborough,  Chatham,  Nelson,  and 
Wellington  are  not  to  be  trifled  with,  and  the  brutal 
strength  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  society,  the  animal 
ferocity  of  the  quays  and  cock-pits,  the  bullies  of  the  cos- 
termongers  of  Shoreditch,  Seveu  Dials,  and  Spitalfields, 
they  know  how  to  wake  up. 

They  have  a  vigorous  health,  and  last  well  into  middle 
and  old  age.  The  old  men  are  as  red  as  roses,  and  still 
handsome.  A  clear  skin,  a  peach -bloom  complexion, 
and  good  teeth  are  found  all  over  the  island.  They  use 
a  plentiful  and  nutritious  diet.  The  operative  cannot 
subsist  on  water-cresses.  Beef,  mutton,  wheat-bread,  and 
malt-liquors  are  universal  among  the  first-class  laborers. 
Good  feeding  is  a  chief  point  of  national  pride  among 
the  vulgar,  and,  in  their  caricatures,  they  represent  the 
Frenchman  as  a  poor,  starved  body.  It  is  curious  that 
Tacitus  found  the  English  beer  already  in  use  among  the 
Germans :  "  They  make  from  barley  or  wheat  a  drink 


RACE.  57 

corrupted  into  some  resemblance  to  wine."  Lord  Chief 
Justice  Fortescue  in  Henry  VI.'s  time,  says,  "  The  in- 
habitants of  England  drink  no  water,  unless  at  certain 
times,  on  a  religious  score,  and  by  way  of  penance." 
The  extremes  of  poverty  and  ascetic  penance,  it  would 
seem,  never  reach  cold  water  in  England.  Wood,  the 
antiquary,  in  describing  the  poverty  and  maceration  of 
Father  Lacey,  an  English  Jesuit,  does  not  deny  him 
beer.  He  says,  "his  bed  was  under  a  thatching,  and  the 
way  to  it  up  a  ladder ;  his  fare  was  coarse ;  his  drink,  of 
a  penny  a  gawn,  or  gallon." 

They  have  more  constitutional  energy  than  any  other 
people.  They  think,  with  Henri  Quatre,  that  manly 
exercises  are  the  foundation  of  that  elevation  of  mind 
which  gives  one  nature  ascendant  over  another ;  or,  with 
the  Arabs,  that  the  days  spent  in  the  chase  are  not 
counted  in  the  length  of  life.  They  box,  run,  shoot, 
ride,  row,  and  sail  from  pole  to  pole.  They  eat  and 
drink,  and  live  jolly  in  the  open  air,  putting  a  bar  of 
solid  sleep  between  day  and  day.  They  walk  and  ride 
as  fast  as  they  can,  their  heads  bent  forward,  as  if  urged 
on  some  pressing  affair.  The  French  say,  that  English- 
men in  the  street  always  walk  straight  before  them  like 
mad  dogs.  Men  and  women  walk  with  infatuation.  As 
soon  as  he  can  handle  a  gun,  hunting  is  the  fine  art  of 
every  Englishman  of  condition.  They  are  the  most  vo- 
racious people  of  prey  that  ever  existed.  Every  season 
turns  out  the  aristocracy  into  the  country,  to  shoot  and 
fish.  The  more  vigorous  run  out  of  the  island  to  Eu- 
rope, to  America,  to  Asia,  to  Africa,  and  Australia,  to 
hunt  with  fury  by  gun,  by  trap,  by  harpoon,  by  lasso, 
3* 


58  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

with  dog,  with  horse,  with  elephant,  or  with  dromedary, 
all  the  game  that  is  in  nature.  These  men  have  written 
the  game-books  of  all  countries,  as  Hawker,  Scrope, 
Murray,  Herbert,  Maxwell,  Gumming,  and  a  host  of 
travellers.  The  people  at  home  are  addicted  to  boxing, 
running,  leaping,  and  rowing  matches. 

I  suppose,  the  dogs  and  horses  must  be  thanked  for  the 
fact,  that  the  men  have  muscles  almost  as  tough  and 
supple  as  their  own.  If  in  every  efficient  man,  there  is 
first  a  fine  animal,  in  the  English  race  it  is  of  the  best 
breed,  a  wealthy,  juicy,  broad-chested  creature,  steeped 
in  ale  and  good  cheer,  and  a  little  overloaded  by  his 
flesh.  Men  of  animal  nature  rely,  like  animals,  on  their 
instincts.  The  Englishman  associates  well  with  dogs  and 
horses.  His  attachment  to  the  horse  arises  from  the 
courage  and  address  required  to  manage  it.  The  horse 
finds  out  who  is  afraid  of  it,  and  does  not  disguise  its 
opinion.  Their  young  boiling  clerks  and  lusty  collegians 
like  the  company  of  horses  better  than  the  company  of 
professors.  I  suppose,  the  horses  are  better  company 
for  them.  The  horse  has  more  uses  than  Buflbn  noted. 
If  you  go  into  the  streets,  every  driver  in  bus  or  dray 
is  a  bully,  and,  if  I  wanted  a  good  trooop  of  soldiers,  I 
should  recruit  among  the  stables.  Add  a  certain  degree 
of  refinement  to  the  vivacity  of  these  riders,  and  you 
obtain  the  precise  quality  which  makes  the  men  and 
women  of  polite  society  formidable. 

They  come  honestly  by  their  horsemanship,  with  Hengst 
and  Horsa  for  their  Saxon  founders.  The  other  branch 
of  their  race  had  been  Tartar  nomads.  The  horse  was  all 
their  wealth.  The  children  were  fed  on  mares'  milk. 


RACE.  59 

The  pastures  of  Tartary  were  still  remembered  by  the 
tenacious  practice  of  the  Norsemen  to  eat  horse-flesh  at 
religious  feasts.  In  the  Danish  invasions,  the  marauders 
seized  upon  horses  where  they  landed,  and  were  at  once 
converted  into  a  body  of  expert  cavalry. 

At  one  time,  this  skill  seems  to  have  declined.  Two 
centuries  ago,  the  English  horse  never  performed  any 
eminent  service  beyond  the  seas ;  and  the  reason  as- 
signed was,  that  the  genius  of  the  English  hath  always 
more  inclined  them  to  foot-service,  as  pure  and  proper 
manhood,  without  any  mixture ;  whilst,  in  a  victory 
on  horseback,  the  credit  ought  to  be  divided  betwixt 
the  man  and  his  horse.  But  in  two  hundred  years,  a 
change  has  taken  place.  Now,  they  boast  that  they  un- 
derstand horses  better  than  any  other  people  in  the  world, 
and  that  their  horses  are  become  their  second  selves. 

"William  the  Conqueror  being,"  says  Camden,  "better 
aflfected  to  beasts  than  to  men,  imposed  heavy  fines  and 
punishments  on  those  that  should  meddle  with  his  game." 
The  Saxon  Chronicle  says,  "  he  loved  the  tall  deer  as  if 
he  were  their  father."  And  rich  Englishmen  have  fol- 
lowed his  example,  according  to  their  ability,  ever  since, 
in  encroaching  on  the  tillage  and  commons  with  their 
game-preserves.  It  is  a  proverb  in  England,  that  it  is 
safer  to  shoot  a  man  than  a  hare.  The  severity  of  the 
game-la\vs  certainly  indicates  an  extravagant  sympathy  of 
the  nation  with  horses  and  hunters.  The  gentlemen  are 
always  on  horseback,  and  have  brought  horses  to  an  ideal 
perfection,  — the  English  racer  is  a  factitious  breed.  A 
score  or  two  of  mounted  gentlemen  may  frequently  be 
seen  running  like  centaurs  down  a  hill  nearly  as  steep 


60  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

as  the  roof  of  a  house.  Every  inn-room  is  lined  with 
pictures  of  races ;  telegraphs  communicate,  every  hour, 
tidings  of  the  heats  from  Newmarket,  and  Ascot :  and  the 
House  of  Commons  adjourns  over  the  'Derby  Day.' 


CHAPTER    V. 

ABILITY. 

THE  Saxon  and  the  Northman  are  both  Scandinavians. 
History  does  not  allow  us  to  fix  the  limits  of  the  applica- 
tion of  these  names  with  any  accuracy ;  but  from  the 
residence  of  a  portion  of  these  people  in  France,  and  from 
some  effect  of  that  powerful  soil  on  their  blood  and  maii- 
ners,  the  Norman  has  come  popularly  to  represent  in 
England  the  aristocratic,  and  the  Saxon  the  democratic 
principle.  And  though,  I  doubt  not,  the  nobles  are  of 
both  tribes,  and  the  workers  of  both,  yet  we  are  forced 
to  use  the  names  a  little  mythically,  one  to  represent  the 
worker,  and  the  other  the  enjoyer. 

The  island  was  a  prize  for  the  best  race.  Each  of  the 
dominant  races  tried  its  fortune  in  turn.  The  Phoenician, 
the  Celt,  and  the  Goth  had  already  got  in.  The  Roman 
came,  but  in  the  very  day  when  his  fortune  culminated. 
He  looked  in  the  eyes  of  a  new  people  that  was  to  sup- 
plant his  own.  He  disembarked  his  legions,  erected  his 
camps  and  towers,  —  presently  he  heard  bad  news  from 
Italy,  and  worse  and  worse,  every  year :  at  last,  he  made 
a  handsome  compliment  of  roads  and  walls,  and  departed. 
But  the  Saxon  seriously  settled  in  the  land,  builded, 


ABILITY.  61 

tilled,  fished,  and  traded,  with  German  trutli  and  adhe- 
siveness. The  Dane  came,  and  divided  with  him.  Last 
of  all,  the  Norman,  or  French-Dane,  arrived,  and  formally 
conquered,  harried,  and  ruled  the  kingdom.  A  century 
later,  it  came  out,  that  the  Saxon  had  the  most  bottom 
and  longevity,  had  managed  to  make  the  victor  speak  the 
language  and  accept  the  law  and  usage  of  the  victim ; 
forced  the  baron  to  dictate  Saxon  terms  to  Norman 
kings ;  and,  step  by  step,  got  all  the  essential  securities 
of  civil  liberty  invented  and  confirmed.  The  genius  of 
the  race  and  the  genius  of  the  place  conspired  to  this 
effect.  The  island  is  lucrative  to  free  labor,  but  not 
worth  possession  on  other  terms.  The  race  was  so  intel- 
lectual, that  a  feudal  or  military  tenure  could  not  last 
longer  than  the  war.  The  power  of  the  Saxon-Danes,  so 
thoroughly  beaten  in  the  war,  that  the  name  of  English 
and  villein  were  synonymous,  yet  so  vivacious  as  to  extort 
charters  from  the  kings,  stood  on  the  strong  personality 
of  these  people.  Sense  and  economy  must  rule  in  a  world 
which  is  made  of  sense  and  economy,  and  the  banker, 
with  his  seven  per  cent,  drives  the  earl  out  of  his  castle. 
A  nobility  of  soldiers  cannot  keep  down  a  commonalty 
of  shrewd  scientific  persons.  What  signifies  a  pedigree 
of  a  hundred  links,  against  a  cotton-spinner  with  steam 
in  his  mill ;  or,  against  a  company  of  broad-shouldered 
Liverpool  merchants,  for  whom  Stephenson  and  Brunei 
are  contriving  locomotives  and  a  tubular  bridge  ? 

These  Saxons  are  the  hands  of  mankind.  They  have 
the  taste  for  toil,  a  distaste  for  pleasure  or  repose, 
and  the  telescopic  appreciation  of  distant  gain.  They 
are  the  wealth-makers,  —  and  by  dint  of  mental  faculty 


62  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

which  has  its  own  conditions.  The  Saxon  works  after 
liking,  or,  only  for  himself;  and  to  set  him  ut  work,  and 
to  begin  to  draw  his  monstrous  values  out  of  barren 
Britain,  all  dishonor,  fret,  and  barrier  must  be  removed, 
and  then  his  energies  begin  to  play. 

The  Scandinavian  fancied  himself  surrounded  by  Trolls, 
—  a  kind  of  goblin  men,  with  vast  power  of  work  and 
skilful  production,  —  divine  stevedores,  carpenters,  reap- 
ers, smiths,  and  masons,  swift  to  reward  every  kindness 
done  them,  with  gifts  of  gold  and  silver.  In  all  English 
history,  this  dream  comes  to  pass.  Certain  Trolls  or 
working  brains,  under  the  names  of  Alfred,  Bede,  Caxton, 
Bract  on,  Camden,  Drake,  Selden,  Dugdale,  Newton, 
Gibbon,  Brindley,  Watt,  Wedgwood,  dwell  in  the  troll- 
mounts  of  Britain,  and  turn  the  sweat  of  their  face  to 
power  and  renown. 

If  the  race  is  good,  so  is  the  place.  Nobody  landed 
on  this  spell-bound  island  with  impunity.  The  enchant- 
ments of  barren  shingle  and  rough  weather  transformed 
every  adventurer  into  a  laborer.  Each  vagabond  that 
arrived  bent  his  neck  to  the  yoke  of  gain,  or  found  the 
air  too  tense  for  him.  The  strong  survived,  the  weaker 
went  to  the  ground.  Even  the  pleasure-hunters  and  sots 
of  England  are  of  a  tougher  texture.  A  hard  tempera- 
ment had  been  formed  by  Saxon  and  Saxon-Dane,  and 
such  of  these  French  or  Normans  as  could  reach  it,  were 
naturalized  in  every  sense. 

All  the  admirable  expedients  or  means  hit  upon  in 
England  must  be  looked  at  as  growths  or  irresistible  off- 
shoots of  the  expanding  mind  of  the  race.  A  man  of  that 
brain  thinks  and  acts  thus ;  and  his  neighbor,  being 


ABILITY.  63 

afflicted  with  the  same  kind  of  brain,  though  he  is  rich, 
and  called  a  baron,  or  a  duke,  thinks  the  same  thing,  and 
is  ready  to  allow  the  justice  of  the  thought  and  act  in  his 
retainer  or  tenant,  though  sorely  against  his  baronial  or 
ducal  will. 

The  island  was  renowned  in  antiquity  for  its  breed  of 
mastiffs,  so  fierce,  that  when  their  teeth  were  set,  you 
must  cut  their  heads  off  to  part  them.  The  man  was 
like  his  dog.  The  people  have  that  nervous  bilious 
temperament,  which  is  known  by  medical  men  to  resist 
every  means  employed  to  make  its  possessor  subservient 
to  the  will  of  others.  The  English  game  is  main  force  to 
main  force,  the  planting  of  foot  to  foot,  fair  play  and 
open  field,  —  a  rough  tug  without  trick  or  dodging,  till 
one  or  both  come  to  pieces.  King  Ethelwald  spoke  the 
language  of  his  race,  when  he  planted  himself  at  Wim- 
borne,  and  said,  '  he  would  do  one  of  two  things,  or  there 
live,  or  there  lie.'  They  hate  craft  and  subtlety.  They 
neither  poison,  nor  waylay,  nor  assassinate ;  and,  when 
they  have  pounded  each  other  to  a  poultice,  they  will 
shake  hands  and  be  friends  for  the  remainder  of  their 
lives. 

You  shall  trace  these  Gothic  touches  at  school,  at 
country  fairs,  at  the  hustings,  and  in  parliament.  No 
artifice,  no  breach  of  truth  and  plain  dealing,  —  not  so 
much  as  secret  ballot,  is  suffered  in  the  island.  In  par- 
liament, the  tactics  of  the  opposition  is  to  resist  every 
step  of  the  government,  by  a  pitiless  attack ;  and  in  a 
bargain,  no  prospoct  of  advantage  is  so  dear  to  the  mer- 
chant, as  the  thought  of  being  tricked  is  mortifying. 

Sir  Kenelm  Digby,  a  courtier  of  Charles  and  James, 


6-i  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

who  won  the  sea-fight  of  Scanderoon,  was  a  model 
Englishman  in  his  day.  "  His  person  was  handsome  and 
gigantic,  he  had  so  graceful  elocution  and  noble  address, 
that,  had  he  heen  dropt  out  of  the  clouds  in  any  part 
of  the  world,  he  would  have  made  himself  respected : 
he  was  skilled  in  six  tongues,  and  master  of  arts  and 
arms."*  Sir  Kenelm  wrote  a  book,  "Of  Bodies  and 
of  Souls,"  in  which  he  propounds,  that  "syllogisms  do 
breed  or  rather  are  all  the  variety  of  man's  life.  They 
are  the  steps  by  which  we  walk  in  all  our  businesses. 
Man,  as  he  is  man,  doth  nothing  else  but  weave  such 
chains.  Whatsoever  he  doth,  swarving  from  this  work, 
he  doth  as  deficient  from  the  nature  of  man :  and,  if  he 
do  aught  beyond  this,  by  breaking  out  into  divers  sorts 
of  exterior  actions,  he  findeth,  nevertheless,  in  this  linked 
sequel  of  simple  discourses,  the  art,  the  cause,  the  rule, 
the  bounds,  and  the  model  of  it."t 

There  spoke  the  genius  of  the  English  people.  There 
is  a  necessity  on  them  to  be  logical.  They  M'ould  hardly 
greet  the  good  that  did  not  logically  fall,  —  as  if  it 
excluded  their  own  merit,  or  shook  their  understand- 
ings. They  are  jealous  of  minds  that  have  much  facility 
of  association,  from  an  instinctive  fear  that  the  seeing 
many  relations  to  their  thought  might  impair  this  serial 
continuity  and  lucrative  concentration.  They  are  impa- 
tient of  genius,  or  of  minds  addicted  to  contemplation, 
and  cannot  conceal  their  contempt  for  sallies  of  thought, 
however  lawful,  whose  steps  they  cannot  count  by  their 

*  Antony  Wood. 

t  Man's  Soule,  p.  29. 


ABILITY.  65 

wonted  rule.  Neither  do  they  reckon  better  a  syllogism 
that  ends  in  syllogism.  For  they  have  a  supreme  eye  to 
facts,  and  theirs  is  a  logic  that  brings  salt  to  soup,  ham- 
mer to  nail,  oar  to  boat,  the  logic  of  cooks,  carpenters, 
and  chemists,  following  the  sequence  of  nature,  and  one 
on  which  words  make  no  impression.  Their  mind  is  not 
dazzled  by  its  own  means,  but  locked  and  bolted  to 
results.  They  love  men,  who,  like  Samuel  Johnson,  a 
doctor  in  the  schools,  would  jump  out  of  his  syllogism 
the  instant  his  major  proposition  was  in  danger,  to  save 
that,  at  all  hazards.  Their  practical  vision  is  spacious, 
and  they  can  hold  many  threads  without  entangling 
them.  All  the  steps  they  orderly  take ;  but  with  the 
high  logic  of  never  confounding  the  minor  and  major 
proposition;  keeping  their  eye  on  their  aim,  in  all  the 
complicity  and  delay  incident  to  the  several  series  of 
means  they  employ.  There  is  room  in  their  minds  for 
this  and  that,  —  a  science  of  degrees.  In  the  courts,  the 
independence  of  the  judges  and  the  loyalty  of  the  suitors 
are  equally  excellent.  In  Parliament,  they  have  hit  on 
that  capital  invention  of  freedom,  a  constitutional  opposi- 
tion. And  when  courts  and  Parliament  are  both  deaf, 
the  plaintiff  is  not  silenced.  Calm,  patient,  his  weapon 
of  defence  from  year  to  year  is  the  obstinate  reproduc- 
tion of  the  grievance,  with  calculations  and  estimates. 
But,  meantime,  he  is  drawing  numbers  and  money  to  his 
opinion,  resolved  that  if  all  remedy  fails,  right  of  revolu- 
tion is  at  the  bottom  of  his  charter-box.  They  are 
bound  to  see  their  measure  carried,  and  stick  to  it 
through  ages  of  defeat. 

Into  this  English  logic,  however,  an  infusion  of  justice 


66  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

enters,  not  so  apparent  in  other  races,  —  a  belief  in  the 
existence  of  two  sides,  and  the  resolution  to  see  fair  play. 
There  is  on  every  question  an  appeal  from  the  assertion 
of  the  parties  to  the  proof  of  what  is  asserted.  They  are 
impious  in  their  scepticism  of  a  theory,  but  kiss  the  dust 
before  a  fact.  Is  it  a  machine,  is  it  a  charter,  is  it  a 
boxer  in  the  ring,  is  it  a  candidate  on  the  hustings, — 
the  universe  of  Englishmen  will  suspend  their  judgment, 
until  the  trial  can  be  had.  They  are  not  to  be  led  by 
a  phrase,  they  want  a  working  plan,  a  working  machine,  a 
working  constitution,  and  will  sit  out  the  trial,  and  abide 
by  the  issue,  and  reject  all  preconceived  theories.  In 
politics  they  put  blunt  questions,  which  must  be  an- 
swered ;  who  is  to  pay  the  taxes  ?  what  will  you  do  for 
trade  ?  what  for  corn  ?  what  for  the  spinner  ? 

This  singular  fairness  and  its  results  strike  the  French 
with  surprise.  Philip  de  Commines  says :  "  Now,  in  my 
opinion,  among  all  the  sovereignties  I  know  in  the  world, 
that  in  which  the  public  good  is  best  attended  to,  and  the 
least  violence  exercised  on  the  people,  is  that  of  Eng- 
land." Life  is  safe,  and  personal  rights;  and  what  is 
freedom,  without  security?  whilst,  in  France,  'frater- 
nity,' '  equality,'  and  '  indivisible  unity  '  are  names  for 
assassination.  Montesquieu  said:  "England  is  the 
freest  country  in  the  world.  If  a  man  in  England  had 
as  many  enemies  as  hairs  on  his  head,  no  harm  would 
happen  to  him." 

Their  self-respect,  their  faith  in  causation,  and  their 
realistic  logic  or  coupling  of  means  to  ends,  have  given 
them  the  leadership  of  the  modern  world.  Montesquieu 
said,  "  No  people  have  true  common-sense  but  those  who 


ABILITY.  07 

are  born  in  England."  This  common-sense  is  a  percep- 
tion of  all  the  conditions  of  our  earthly  existence,  of 
laws  that  can  be  stated,  and  of  laws  that  cannot  be 
stated,  or  that  are  learned  only  by  practice,  in  which 
allowance  for  friction  is  made.  They  are  impious  in 
their  scepticism  of  theory,  and  in  high  departments  they 
are  cramped  and  sterile.  But  the  unconditional  surren- 
der to  facts,  and  the  choice  of  means  to  reach  their  ends, 
are  as  admirable  as  with  ants  and  bees. 

The  bias  of  the  nation  is  a  passion  for  utility.  They 
love  the  lever,  the  screw,  and  pulley,  the  Flanders  draught- 
horse,  the  waterfall,  wind-mills,  tide-mills  ;  the  sea  and 
the  wind  to  bear  their  freight-ships.  More  than  the 
diamond  Koh-i-noor,  which  glitters  among  their  crown- 
jewels,  they  prize  that  dull  pebble  which  is  wiser  than 
a  man,  whose  poles  turn  themselves  to  the  poles  of  the 
world,  and  whose  axis  is  parallel  to  the  axis  of  the 
world.  Now,  their  toys  are  steam  and  galvanism.  They 
are  heavy  at  the  fine  arts,  but  adroit  at  the  coarse  ;  not 
good  in  jewelry  or  mosaics,  but  the  best  iron-masters, 
colliers,  wool-combers,  and  tanners  in  Europe.  They 
apply  themselves  to  agriculture,  to  draining,  to  resisting 
encroachments  of  sea,  wind,  travelling  sands,  cold  and 
wet  subsoil ;  to  fishery,  to  manufacture  of  indispensable 
staples,  —  salt,  plumbago,  leather,  wool,  glass,  pottery, 
and  brick,  —  to  bees  and  silk-worms ;  and  by  their 
steady  combinations  they  succeed.  A  manufacturer  sits 
down  to  dinner  in  a  suit  of  clothes  which  was  wool  on 
a  sheep's  back  at  sunrise.  You  dine  with  a  gentleman  on 
venison,  pheasant,  quail,  pigeons,  poultry,  mushrooms,  and 
pineapples,  all  the  growth  of  his  estate.  They  are  neat 


68  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

husbands  for  ordering  all  their  tools  pertaining  to  house 
and  field.  All  are  well  kept.  There  is  no  want  and  no 
waste.  They  study  use  and  fitness  in  their  building,  in 
the  order  of  their  dwellings,  and  in  their  dress.  The 
Frenchman  invented  the  ruffle,  the  Englishman  added 
the  shirt.  The  Englishman  wears  a  sensible  coat  but- 
toned to  the  chin,  of  rough  but  solid  and  lasting  texture. 
If  he  is  a  lord,  he  dresses  a  little  worse  than  a  commoner. 
They  have  diffused  the  taste  for  plain  substantial  hats, 
shoes,  and  coats  through  Europe.  They  think  him  the 
best  dressed  man,  whose  dress  is  so  fit  for  his  use  that 
you  cannot  notice  or  remember  to  describe  it. 

They  secure  the  essentials  in  their  diet,  in  their  arts 
and  manufactures.  Every  article  of  cutlery  shows,  in  its 
shape,  thought  and  long  experience  of  workmen.  They 
put  the  expense  in  the  right  place,  as,  in  their  sea-steam- 
ers, in  the  solidity  of  the  machinery  and  the  strength  of 
the  boat.  The  admirable  equipment  of  their  arctic  ships 
carries  London  to  the  pole.  They  build  roads,  aqueducts, 
warm  and  ventilate  houses.  And  they  have  impressed 
their  directness  and  practical  habit  on  modern  civiliza- 
tion. 

In  trade,  the  Englishman  believes  that  nobody  breaks 
who  ought  not  to  break  ;  and,  that,  if  he  do  not  make 
trade  everything,  it  will  make  him  nothing;  and  acts  on 
this  belief.  The  spirit  of  system,  attention  to  details,  and 
the  subordination  of  details,  or,  the  not  driving  tilings  too 
finely  (which  is  charged  on  the  Germans),  constitute  that 
despatcli  of  business,  which  makes  the  mercantile  power 
of  England. 

In  war,  the  Englishman  looks  to  his  means.     He  is  of 


ABILITY.  69 

the  opinion  of  Civilis,  his  German  ancestor,  whom  Tacitus 
reports  as  holding  "  that  the  gods  are  on  the  side  of  the 
strongest " ;  —  a  sentence  which  Bonaparte  unconsciously 
translated,  when  he  said,  "  that  he  had  noticed,  that  Provi- 
dence always  favored  the  heaviest  battalion."  Their  mili- 
tary science  propounds  that  if  the  weight  of  the  advancing 
column  is  greater  than  that  of  the  resisting,  the  latter  is 
destroyed.  Therefore  Wellington,  when  he  came  to  the 
army  in  Spain,  had  every  man  weighed,  first  with  accou- 
trements, and  then  without ;  believing  that  the  force  of 
an  army  depended  on  the  weight  and  power  of  the  indi- 
vidual soldiers,  in  spite  of  cannon.  Lord  Palmerstou 
told  the  House  of  Commons,  that  more  care  is  taken  of 
the  health  and  comfort  of  English  troops  than  of  any 
other  troops  in  the  world ;  and  that  hence  the  English  can 
put  more  men  into  the  ranks,  on  the  day  of  action,  on  the 
field  of  battle,  than  any  other  army.  Before  the  bombard- 
ment of  the  Danish  forts  in  the  Baltic,  Nelson  spent  day 
after  day,  himself  in  the  boats,  on  the  exhausting  service 
of  sounding  the  channel.  Clerk  of  Eldin's  celebrated  ma- 
noeuvre of  breaking  the  line  of  sea-battle,  and  Nelson's 
feat  of  doubling,  or  stationing  his  ships  one  on  the  outer 
bow,  and  another  on  the  outer  quarter  of  each  of  the 
enemy's,  were  only  translations  into  naval  tactics  of 
Bonaparte's  rule  of  concentration.  Lord  Coilingwood 
was  accustomed  to  tell  his  men,  that,  if  they  could  fire 
three  well-directed  broadsides  in  five  minutes,  no  vessel 
could  resist  them  ;  and,  from  constant  practice,  they  came 
to  do  it  in  three  minutes  and  a  half. 

But  conscious  that  no  race  of  better  men  exists,  they 
rely  most  on  the  simplest  means ;  and  do  not  like  pon- 


70  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

derous  and  difficult  tactics,  but  delight  to  bring  the  affair 
hand  to  hai:d,  where  the  victory  lies  with  the  strength, 
courage,  and  endurance  of  the  individual  combatants. 
They  adopt  every  improvement  in  rig,  in  motor,  in  weap- 
ons, but  they  fundamentally  believe  that  the  best  strat- 
agem in  naval  war  is  to  lay  your  ship  close  alongside  of 
the  enemy's  ship,  and  bring  all  your  guns  to  bear  on  him, 
until  you  or  he  go  to  the  bottom.  This  is  the  old  fashion, 
which  never  goes  out  of  fashion,  neither  in  nor  out  of 
England. 

It  is  not  usually  a  point  of  honor,  nor  a  religious  sen- 
timent, and  never  any  whim  that  they  will  shed  their 
blood  for ;  but  usually  property,  and  right  measured  by 
property,  that  breeds  revolution.  They  have  no  Indian 
taste  for  a  tomahawk-dance,  no  French  taste  for  a  badge 
or  a  proclamation.  The  Englishman  is  peaceably  mind- 
ing his  business  and  earning  his  day's  wages.  But  if 
you  offer  to  lay  hand  on  his  day's  wages,  on  his  cow,  or 
his  right  in  common,  or  his  shop,  he  will  fight  to  the 
Judgment.  Magna-charta,  jury-trial,  habeas-corpus,  star- 
chamber,  ship-money,  Popery,  Plymouth  colony,  American 
Revolution,  are  all  questions  involving  a  yeoman's  right 
to  his  dinner,  and,  except  as  touching  that,  would  not 
have  lashed  the  British  nation  to  rage  and  revolt. 

Whilst  they  are  thus  instinct  with  a  spirit  of  order, 
and  of  calculation,  it  must  be  owned  they  are  capable  of 
larger  views ;  but  the  indulgence  is  expensive  to  them, 
costs  great  crises,  or  accumulations  of  mental  power. 
In  common,  the  horse  works  best  with  blinders.  Noth- 
ing is  more  in  the  line  of  English  thought,  than  our 
unvarnished  Connecticut  question,  "Pray,  sir,  how  do 


ABILITY.  71 

you  get  your  living  when  you  are  at  home  ?  "  The  ques- 
tions of  freedom,  of  taxation,  of  privilege,  are  money 
questions.  Heavy  fellows,  steeped  in  beer  and  flesh- 
pots,  they  are  hard  of  hearing  and  dim  of  sight.  Their 
drowsy  minds  need  to  be  flagellated  by  war  and  trade  and 
politics  and  persecution.  They  cannot  well  read  a  prin- 
ciple, except  by  the  light  of  fagots  and  of  burning  towns. 

Tacitus  says  of  the  Germans,  "  powerful  only  in  sudden 
efforts,  they  are  impatient  of  toil  and  labor."  This  highly 
destined  race,  if  it  had  not  somewhere  added  the  chamber 
of  patience  to  its  brain,  would  not  have  built  London. 
I  know  not  from  which  of  the  tribes  and  temperaments 
that  went  to  the  composition  of  the  people  this  tenacity 
was  supplied,  but  they  clinch  every  nail  they  drive. 
They  have  no  running  for  luck,  and  no  immoderate 
speed.  They  spend  largely  on  their  fabric,  and  await  the 
slow  return.  Their  leather  lies  tanning  seven  years  in 
the  vat.  At  Rogcrs's  mills,  in  Sheffield,  where  I  was 
shown  the  process  of  making  a  razor  and  a  penknife,  I 
was  told  there  is  no  luck  in  making  good  steel;  that 
they  make  no  mistakes,  every  blade  in  the  hundred  and 
in  the  thousand  is  good.  And  that  is  characteristic  of 
all  their  work,  —  no  more  is  attempted  than  is  done. 

When  Thor  and  his  companions  arrive  at  Utgard,  he 
is  told  that  "  nobody  is  permitted  to  remain  here,  unless 
he  understand  some  art,  and  excel  in  it  all  other  men." 
The  same  question  is  still  put  to  the  posterity  of  Thor. 
A  nation  of  laborers,  every  man  is  trained  to  some  one 
art  or  detail,  and  aims  at  perfection  in  that :  not  content 
unless  he  has  something  in  which  he  thinks  he  surpasses 
all  other  men.  He  would  rather  not  do  anything  at  all, 


72  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

than  not  do  it  well.  I  suppose  no  people  have  such 
thoroughness :  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  every  man 
meaning  to  be  master  of  his  art. 

"To  show  capacity,"  a  Frenchman  described  as  the 
end  of  a  speech  in  debate:  "no,"  said  an  Englishman, 
"but  to  set  your  shoulder  at  the  wheel,  —  to  advance  the 
business."  Sir  Samuel  Rom  illy  refused  to  speak  in  pop- 
ular assemblies,  confining  himself  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, where  a  measure  can  be  carried  by  a  speech.  The 
business  of  the  House  of  Commons  is  conducted  by  a  few 
persons,  but  these  are  hard-worked.  Sir  Robert  Peel 
"  knew  the  Blue  Books  by  heart."  His  colleagues  and 
rivals  carry  Hansard  in  their  heads.  The  high  civil  and 
legal  offices  are  not  beds  of  ease,  but  posts  which  exact 
frightful  amounts  of  mental  labor.  Many  of  the  great 
leaders,  like  Pitt,  Canning,  Castlercagh,  Romilly,  are 
soon  worked  to  death.  They  are  excellent  judges  in 
England  of  a  good  worker,  and  when  they  find  one,  like 
Clarendon,  Sir  Philip  Warwick,  Sir  William  Coventry, 
Ashley,  Burke,  Thurlow,  Mansfield,  Pitt,  Eldon,  Peel,  or 
Russell,  there  is  nothing  too  good  or  too  high  for  him. 

They  have  a  wonderful  heat  in  the  pursuit  of  a  public 
aim.  Private  persons  exhibit,  in  scientific  and  antiquarian 
researches,  the  same  pertinacity  as  the  nation  showed  in 
the  coalitions  in  which  it  yoked  Europe  against  the 
Empire  of  Bonaparte,  one  after  the  other  defeated,  and 
still  renewed,  until  the  sixth  hurled  him  from  his  seat. 

Sir  John  Herschel,  in  completion  of  the  work  of  his 
father,  who  had  made  the  catalogue  of  the  stars  of  the 
northern  hemisphere,  expatriated  himself  for  years  at  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  finished  his  inventory  of  the  southern 


ABILITY.  73 

heaven,  came  home,  and  redacted  it  in  eight  years  more ; 
—  a  work  whose  value  does  not  begin  until  thirty  years 
have  elapsed,  and  thenceforward  a  record  to  all  ages  of 
the  highest  import.  The  Admiralty  sent  out  the  Arctic 
expeditions  year  after  year,  in  search  of  Sir  John  Frank- 
lin, until,  at  last,  they  have  threaded  their  way  through 
polar  pack  and  Beliring's  Straits,  and  solved  the  geo- 
graphical problem.  Lord  Elgin,  at  Athens,  saw  the 
imminent  ruin  of  the  Greek  remains,  set  up  his  scaffold- 
ings, in  spite  of  epigrams,  and,  after  five  years'  labor  to 
collect  them,  got  his  marbles  on  shipboard.  The  ship 
struck  a  rock,  and  went  to  the  bottom.  He  had  them 
all  fished  up,  by  divers,  at  a  vast  expense,  and  brought 
to  London;  not  knowing  that  Haydon,  Fuseli,  and 
Canova,  and  all  good  heads  in  all  the  world,  were  to  be 
his  applauders.  In  the  same  spirit,  were  the  excavation 
and  research  by  Sir  Charles  Fellowcs,  for  the  Xanthian 
monument ;  and  of  Layard,  for  his  Nineveh  sculptures. 

The  nation  sits  in  the  immense  city  they  have  builded, 
a  London  extended  into  every  man's  mind,  though  he 
live  in  Van  Dicman's  Land  or  Capetown.  Faithful  per- 
formance of  what  is  undertaken  to  be  performed,  they 
honor  in  themselves,  and  exact  in  others,  as  certificate  of 
equality  with  themselves.  The  modern  world  is  theirs. 
They  have  made  and  make  it  day  by  day.  The  commer- 
cial relations  of  the  world  are  so  intimately  drawn  to 
London,  that  every  dollar  on  earth  contributes  to  the 
strength  of  the  English  government.  And  if  all  the 
wealth  in  the  planet  should  perish  by  war  or  deluge,  they 
know  themselves  competent  to  replace  it. 

They  have  approved  their  Saxon  blood,  by  their  sea- 
4 


74  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

going  qualities ;  their  descent  from  Odin's  smiths,  by 
their  hereditary  skill  in  working  in  iron;  their  British 
birth,  by  husbandry  and  immense  wheat  harvests ;  and 
justified  their  occupancy  of  the  centre  of  habitable  land, 
by  their  supreme  ability  and  cosmopolitan  spirit.  They 
have  tilled,  builded,  forged,  spun,  and  woven.  They  have 
made  the  island  a  thoroughfare ;  and  London  a  shop,  a 
law-court,  a  record-office,  and  scientific  bureau,  inviting 
to  strangers ;  a  sanctuary  to  refugees  of  every  political 
and  religious  opinion  ;  and  such  a  city,  that  almost  every 
active  man,  in  any  nation,  finds  himself,  at  one  time  or 
other,  forced  to  visit  it. 

In  every  path  of  practical  activity,  they  have  gone  even 
with  the  best.  There  is  no  secret  of  war,  in  which  they 
have  not  shown  mastery.  The  steam-chamber  of  Watt, 
the  locomotive  of  Stephenson,  the  cotton-mule  of  Roberts, 
perform  the  labor  of  the  world.  There  is  no  department 
of  literature,  of  science,  or  of  useful  art,  in  which  they 
Lave  not  produced  a  first-rate  book.  It  is  England, 
whose  opinion  is  waited  for  on  the  merit  of  a  new  inven- 
tion, an  improved  science.  And  in  the  complications  of 
the  trade  and  politics  of  their  vast  empire,  they  have  been 
equal  to  every  exigency,  with  counsel  and  with  conduct. 
Is  it  their  luck,  or  is  it  in  the  chambers  of  their  brain,  — 
it  is  their  commercial  advantage,  that  whatever  light  ap- 
pears iu  better  method  or  happy  invention,  breaks  out  in 
their  race.  They  are  a  family  to  which  a  destiny  attaches, 
and  the  Banshee  has  sworn  that  a  male  heir  shall  never 
be  wanting.  They  have  a  wealth  of  men  to  fill  important 
posts,  and  the  vigilance  of  party  criticism  insures  the 
selection  of  a  competent  person. 


ABILITY.  75 

A  proof  of  the  energy  of  the  British  people  is  the 
highly  artificial  construction  of  Ihe  whole  fabric.  The 
climate  and  geography,  I  said,  were  factitious,  as  if 
the  hands  of  man  had  arranged  the  conditions.  The 
same  character  pervades  the  whole  kingdom.  Bacon 
said,  "  Rome  was  a  state  not  subject  to  paradoxes  "  ;  but 
England  subsists  by  antagonisms  and  contradictions. 
The  foundations  of  its  greatness  are  the  rolling  waves ; 
and,  from  first  to  last,  it  is  a  museum  of  anomalies.  This 
foggy  and  rainy  country  furnishes  the  world  with  astro- 
nomical observations.  Its  short  rivers  do  not  afford 
water-power,  but  the  land  shakes  under  the  thunder  of 
the  mills.  There  is  no  gold-mine  of  any  importance,  but 
there  is  more  gold  in  England  than  in  all  other  countries. 
It  is  too  far  north  for  the  culture  of  the  vine,  but  the 
wines  of  all  countries  are  in  its  docks.  The  French 
Comte  de  Lauraguais  said,  "no  fruit  ripens  in  England 
but  a  baked  apple  "  ;  but  oranges  and  pineapples  are  as 
cheap  in  London  as  in  the  Mediterranean.  The  Mark- 
Lane  Express,  or  the  Custom-House  Returns  bear  out 
to  the  letter  the  vaunt  of  Pope,  — 

"  Let  India  boast  her  palms,  nor  envy  we 
The  weeping  amber,  nor  the  spicy  tree, 
While,  by  our  oaks,  those  precious  loads  are  borne, 
And  realms  commanded  which  those  trees  adorn." 

The  native  cattle  are  extinct,  but  the  island  is  full 
of  artificial  breeds.  The  agriculturist  Bakewell  created 
sheep  and  cows  and  horses  to  order,  and  breeds  in  which 
everything  was  omitted  but  what  is  economical.  The  cow 
is  sacrificed  to  her  bag,  the  ox  to  his  surloiu.  Stall-feed- 


76  ENGLISH    TKAITS. 

ing  makes  sperm-mills  of  the  cattle,  and  converts  the  sta- 
ble to  a  chemical  factory.  The  rivers,  lakes,  and  ponds, 
too  much  fished,  or  obstructed  by  factories,  are  artificially 
filled  with  the  eggs  of  salmon,  turbot,  and  herring. 

Chat  Moss  and  the  fens  of  Lincolnshire  and  Cam- 
bridgeshire are  unhealthy  and  too  barren  to  pay  rent.  By 
cylindrical  tiles,  and  gutta-percha  tubes,  five  millions  of 
acres  of  bad  land  have  been  drained  and  put  on  equality 
with  the  best,  for  rape-culture  and  grass.  The  climate 
too,  which  was  already  believed  to  have  become  milder 
and  drier  by  the  enormous  consumption  of  coal,  is  so  far 
reached  by  this  new  action,  that  fogs  and  storms  are  said 
to  disappear.  In  due  course,  all  England  will  be  drained, 
and  rise  a  second  time  out  of  the  waters.  The  latest  step 
was  to  call  in  the  aid  of  steam  to  agriculture.  Steam  is 
almost  an  Englishman.  I  do  not  know  but  they  will 
send  him  to  Parliament,  next,  to  make  laws.  He  weaves, 
forges,  saws,  pounds,  fans,  and  now  he  must  pump,  grind, 
dig,  and  plough  for  the  farmer.  The  markets  created  by 
the  manufacturing  population  have  erected  agriculture 
into  a  great  thriving  and  spending  industry.  The  value 
of  the  houses  in  Britain  is  equal  to  the  value  of  the  soil. 
Artificial  aids  of  ah1  kinds  are  cheaper  than  the  natural 
resources.  No  man  can  afford  to  walk,  when  the  parlia- 
mentary train  carries  him  for  a  penny  a  mile.  Gas- 
burners  are  cheaper  than  daylight  in  numberless  floors  in 
the  cities.  All  the  houses  in  London  buy  their  water. 
The  English  trade  does  not  exist  for  the  exportation  of 
native  products,  but  on  its  manufactures,  or  the  making 
well  everything  which  is  ill  made  elsewhere.  They  make 
ponchos  for  the  Mexican,  bandannas  for  the  Hindoo,  gin- 


ABILITY.  77 

seng  for  the  Chinese,  beads  for  the  Indian,  laces  for  the 
Flemings,  telescopes  for  astronomers,  cannons  for  kings. 

The  Board  of  Trade  caused  the  best  models  of  Greece 
and  Italy  to  be  placed  within  the  reach  of  every  manu- 
facturing population.  They  caused  to  be  translated  from 
foreign  languages  and  illustrated  by  elaborate  drawings, 
the  most  approved  works  of  Munich,  Berlin,  and  Paris. 
They  have  ransacked  Italy  to  find  new  forms,  to  add  a 
grace  to  the  products  of  their  looms,  their  potteries,  and 
their  foundries.* 

The  nearer  we  look,  the  more  artificial  is  their  social 
system.  Their  law  is  a  network  of  fictions.  Their  prop- 
erty, a  scrip  or  certificate  of  right  to  interest  on  money 
that  no  man  ever  saw.  Their  social  classes  are  made  by 
statute.  Their  ratios  of  power  and  representation  are  his- 
torical and  legal.  The  last  reform-bill  took  away  politi- 
cal power  from  a  mound,  a  ruin,  and  a  stone-wall,  whilst 
Birmingham  and  Manchester,  whose  mills  paid  for  the 
wars  of  Europe,  had  no  representative.  Purity  in  the 
elective  Parliament  is  secured  by  the  purchase  of  seats.-}- 
Foreign  power  is  kept  by  armed  colonies;  power  at  home, 
by  a  standing  army  of  police.  The  pauper  lives  better 
than  the  free  laborer ;  the  thief  better  than  the  pauper ; 
and  the  transported  felon  better  than  the  one  under  im- 
prisonment. The  crimes  are  factitious,  as  smuggling, 
poaching,  non-conformity,  heresy,  and  treason.  Better, 
they  say  in  England,  kill  a  man  than  a  hare.  The  sov- 

*  See  Memorial  of  H.  Greenough,  p.  66,  New  York,  1853. 

t  Sir  S.  Romilly,  purest  of  English  patriots,  decided  that 
the  only  independent  mode  of  entering  Parliament  was  to  buy 
a  seat,  and  he  bought  Horsham. 


78  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

ereignty  of  the  seas  is  maintained  by  the  impressment 
of  seamen.  "  The  impressment  of  seamen,"  said  Lord 
Eldon,  "  is  the  life  of  our  navy."  Solvency  is  maintained 
by  means  of  a  national  debt,  on  the  principle,  "  if  you 
will  not  lend  me  the  money,  how  can  I  pay  you  ?  "  For 
the  administration  of  justice,  Sir  Samuel  Uomilly's  expe- 
dient for  clearing  the  arrears  of  business  in  Chancery, 
was,  the  chancellor's  staying  away  entirely  from  his 
court.  Their  system  of  education  is  factitious.  The 
Universities  galvanize  dead  languages  into  a  semblance 
of  life.  Their  church  is  artificial.  The  manners  and 
customs  of  society  are  artificial;  —  made-up  meii  with 
made-up  manners ;  —  and  thus  the  whole  is  Birmingham- 
ized,  and  we  have  a  nation  whose  existence  is  a  work  of 
art ;  —  a  cold,  barren,  almost  arctic  isle,  being  made  the 
most  fruitful,  luxurious,  and  imperial  laud  in  the  whole 
earth. 

Man  in  England  submits  to  be  a  product  of  political 
economy.  On  a  bleak  moor,  a  mill  is  built,  a  banking- 
house  is  opened,  and  men  come  in,  as  water  in  a  sluice- 
way, and  towns  and  cities  rise.  Man  is  made  as  a  Bir- 
mingham button.  The  rapid  doubling  of  the  population 
dates  from  Watt's  steam-engine.  A  landlord,  who  owns 
a  province,  says,  "  the  tenantry  are  unprofitable ;  let  me 
have  sheep."  He  unroofs  the  houses,  and  ships  the  popu- 
lation to  America.  The  nation  is  accustomed  to  the  in- 
stantaneous creation  of  wealth.  It  is  the  maxim  of  their 
economists,  "  that  the  greater  part  in  value  of  the  wealth 
now  existing  in  England  has  been  produced  by  human 
hands  within  the  last  twelve  months."  Meantime,  three  or 
four  days'  rain  will  reduce  hundreds  to  starving  in  London. 


ABILITY.  79 

One  secret  of  their  power  is  their  mutual  good  under- 
standing. Not  only  good  minds  are  born  among  them, 
but  all  the  people  have  good  minds.  Every  nation  has 
yielded  some  good  wit,  if,  as  has  chanced  to  many  tribes, 
only  one.  But  the  intellectual  organization  of  the  Eng- 
lish admits  a  commuuicableness  of  knowledge  and  ideas 
among  them  all.  An  electric  touch  by  any  of  their 
national  ideas,  melts  them  into  one  family,  and  brings 
the  hoards  of  power  which  their  individuality  is  always 
hiving,  into  use  and  play  for  all.  Is  it  the  smallness  of 
the  country,  or  is  it  the  pride  and  affection  of  race,  — 
they  have  solidarity,  or  responsibleness,  and  trust  in  each 
other. 

Their  minds,  like  wool,  admit  of  a  dye  which  is  more 
lasting  than  the  cloth.  They  embrace  their  cause  with 
more  tenacity  than  their  life.  Though  not  military,  yet 
every  common  subject  by  the  poll  is  fit  to  make  a  sol- 
dier of.  These  private  reserved  mute  family-men  can 
adopt  a  public  end  with  all  their  heat,  and  this  strength 
of  affection  makes  the  romance  of  their  heroes.  The 
difference  of  rank  does  not  divide  the  national  heart. 
The  Danish  poet  Oehleuschlager  complains,  that  who 
writes  in  Danish  writes  to  two  hundred  readers.  In 
Germany,  there  is  one  speech  for  the  learned,  and  another 
for  the  masses,  to  that  extent,  that,  it  is  said,  no  senti- 
ment or  phrase  from  the  works  of  any  great  German 
writer  is  ever  heard  among  the  lower  classes.  But  in 
England,  the  language  of  the  noble  is  the  language  of 
the  poor.  In  Parliament,  in  pulpits,  in  theatres,  when 
the  speakers  rise  to  thought  and  passion,  the  language 
becomes  idiomatic;  the  people  in  the  street  best  under- 


80  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

stand  the  best  words.  And  their  language  seems  drawn 
from  the  Bible,  the  common  law,  and  the  works  of  Shak- 
speare,  Bacon,  Milton,  Pope,  Young,  Cowper,  Burns,  and 
Scott.  The  island  has  produced  two  or  three  of  the 
greatest  men  that  ever  existed,  but  they  were  not  solitary 
in  their  own  time.  Men  quickly  embodied  what  Newton 
found  out,  in  Greenwich  observatories,  and  practical 
navigation.  The  boys  knew  all  that  Hutton  knew  of 
strata,  or  Dalton  of  atoms,  or  Harvey  of  blood-vessels  ; 
and  these  studies,  once  dangerous,  are  in  fashion.  So 
what  is  invented  or  known  in  agriculture,  or  in  trade,  or 
in  war,  or  in  art,  or  in  literature,  and  antiquities.  A 
great  ability,  not  amassed  on  a  few  giants,  but  poured 
into  the  general  mind,  so  that  each  of  them  could  at  a 
pinch  stand  in  the  shoes  of  the  other ;  and  they  are  more 
bound  in  character  than  differenced  in  ability  or  in  rank. 
The  laborer  is  a  possible  lord.  The  lord  is  a  possible 
basket-maker.  Every  man  carries  the  English  system  in. 
his  brain,  knows  what  is  confided  to  him,  and  does 
therein  the  best  he  can.  The  chancellor  carries  England 
on  his  mace,  the  midshipman  at  the  point  of  his  dirk,  the 
smith  on  his  hammer,  the  cook  in  the  bowl  of  his  spoon ; 
the  postilion  cracks  his  whip  for  England,  and  the  sailor 
times  his  oars  to  "God  save  the  King!"  The  very 
felons  have  their  pride  in  each  other's  English  stanch- 
ness.  In  politics  and  in  war,  they  hold  together  as  by 
hooks  of  steel.  The  charm  in  Nelson's  history  is,  the 
unselfish  greatness;  the  assurance  of  being  support  L-tl  to 
the  uttermost  by  those  whom  he  supports  to  the  utter- 
most. Whilst  they  are  some  ages  ahead  of  the  rest  of 
the  world  in  the  art  of  living  ;  whilst  in  some  directions 


MANNERS.  81 

they  do  not  represent  the  modern  spirit,  but  constitute  it, 
—  this  vanguard  of  civility  and  power  they  coldly  hold, 
marching  in  phalanx,  lock-step,  foot  after  foot,  file  after 
file  of  heroes,  ten  thousand  deep. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MANNERS. 

I  FIND  the  Englishman  to  be  him  of  all  men  who 
stands  firmest  in  his  shoes.  They  have  in  themselves 
what  they  value  in  their  horses,  mettle  and  bottom.  On 
the  day  of  my  arrival  at  Liverpool,  a  gentleman,  in  de- 
scribing to  me  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  happened 
to  say,  "  Lord  Clarendon  has  pluck  like  a  cock,  and  will 
fight  till  he  dies";  and,  what  I  heard  first  I  heard  last, 
and  the  one  tiling  the  English  value,  is  pluck.  The 
word  is  not  beautiful,  but  on  the  quality  they  signify  by 
it  the  nation  is  unanimous.  The  cabmen  have  it ;  the 
merchants  have  it ;  the  bishops  have  it ;  the  women  have 
it ;  the  journals  have  it ;  the  Times  newspaper,  they  say, 
is  the  pluckiest  thing  in  England,  and  Sidney  Smith  had 
made  it  a  proverb,  that  little  Lord  John  Russell,  the 
minister,  would  take  the  command  of  the  Channel  fleet 
to-morrow. 

They  require  you  to  dare  to  be  of  your  own  opinion, 
and  they  hate  the  practical  cowards  who  cannot  in  affairs 
answer  directly  yes  or  no.  They  dare  to  displease,  nay, 
they  will  let  you  break  all  the  commandments,  if  you  do 
it  natively,  arid  with  spirit.  You  must  be  somebody ; 
then  you  may  do  this  or  that,  as  you  will. 

4*  r 


82  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

Machinery  Las  been  applied  to  all  work,  and  carried  to 
such  perfection,  that  little  is  left  for  the  men  but  to  mind 
the  engines  and  feed  the  furnaces.  But  the  machines 
require  punctual  service,  and  as  they  never  tire,  they 
prove  too  much  for  their  tenders.  Mines,  forges,  mills, 
breweries,  railroads,  steam-pump,  steam-plough,  drill  of 
regiments,  drill  of  police,  rule  of  court,  and  shop-rule, 
have  operated  to  give  a  mechanical  regularity  to  all  the 
habit  and  action  of  men.  A  terrible  machine  lias  pos- 
sessed itself  of  the  ground,  the  air,  the  men  and  women, 
and  hardly  even  thought  is  free. 

The  mechanical  might  and  organization  require  in  the 
people  constitution  and  answering  spirits ;  and  he  who 
goes  among  them  must  have  some  weight  of  metal.  At 
last,  you  take  your  hint  from  the  fury  of  life  you  find, 
and  say,  one  thing  is  plain,  this  is  no  country  for  faint- 
hearted people :  don't  creep  about  diffidently ;  make  up 
your  mind ;  take  your  own  course,  and  you  shall  find 
respect  and  furtherance. 

It  requires,  men  say,  a  good  constitution  to  travel  in 
Spain.  I  say  as  much  of  England,  for  other  cause,  sim- 
ply on  account  of  the  vigor  and  brawn  of  the  people. 
Nothing  but  the  most  serious  business  could  give 
one  any  counterweight  to  these  Baresarks,  though  they 
were  only  to  order  eggs  and  muffins  for  their  breakfast. 
The  Englishman  speaks  with  all  his  body.  His  elocution 
is  stomachic,  —  as  the  American's  is  labial.  The  Eng- 
lishman is  very  petulant  and  precise  about  his  accom- 
modation at  inns,  and  on  the  roads ;  a  quiddle  about  his 
toast  and  his  chop,  and  every  species  of  convenience, 
and  loud  and  pungent  in  his  expressions  of  impat  icnce  at 


MANXKRS.  S3 

any  neglect.  His  vivacity  betrays  itself,  at  all  points,  in 
his  manners,  in  his  respiration,  and  the  inarticulate  noises 
he  makes  in  clearing  the  throat,  —  all  significant  of  burly 
strength.  He  has  stamina ;  he  can  take  the  initiative  in 
emergencies.  He  has  that  aplomb,  which  results  from  a 
good  adjustment  of  the  moral  and  physical  nature,  and 
the  obedience  of  all  the  powers  to  the  will ;  as  if  the 
axes  of  his  eyes  were  united  to  his  backbone,  and  only 
moved  with  the  trunk. 

This  vigor  appears  in  the  incuriosity,  and  stony  neglect, 
each  of  every  other.  Each  man  walks,  eats,  drinks, 
shaves,  dresses,  gesticulates,  and,  in  every  manner,  acts, 
and  suffers  without  reference  to  the  bystanders,  in  his  own 
fashion,  only  careful  not  to  interfere  with  them,  or  annoy 
them ;  not  that  he  is  trained  to  neglect  the  eyes  of  his 
neighbors,  —  he  is  really  occupied  with  his  own  affair, 
and  does  not  think  of  them.  Every  man  in  this  polished 
country  consults  only  his  convenience,  as  much  as  a  soli- 
tary pioneer  in  Wisconsin.  I  know  not  where  any  per- 
sonal eccentricity  is  so  freely  allowed,  and  no  man  gives 
himself  any  concern  with  it.  An  Englishman  walks  in 
a  pouring  rain,  swinging  his  closed  umbrella  like  a  walk- 
ing-stick ;  wears  a  wig,  or  a  shawl,  or  a  saddle,  or  stands 
on  his  head,  and  no  remark  is  made.  And  as  he  has 
been  doing  this  for  several  generations,  it  is  now  in  the 
blood. 

In  short,  every  one  of  these  islanders  is  an  island  him- 
self, safe,  tranquil,  incommunicable.  In  a  company  of 
strangers,  you  would  think  him  deaf ;  his  eyes  never  wan- 
der from  his  table  and  newspaper.  He  is  never  betrayed 
into  any  curiosity  or  unbecoming  emotion.  They  have 


8-i  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

all  been  trained  in  one  severe  school  of  manners,  and 
never  put  off  the  harness.  He  does  not  give  his  hand. 
He  does  not  let  you  meet  his  eye.  It  is  almost  an 
affront  to  look  a  man  in  the  face,  without  being  intro- 
duced. In  mixed  or  in  select  companies  they  do  not 
introduce  persons ;  so  that  a  presentation  is  a  circum- 
stance as  valid  as  a  contract.  Introductions  are  sacra- 
ments. He  withholds  his  name.  At  the  hotel,  he  is 
hardly  willing  to  whisper  it  to  the  clerk  at  tlie  book- 
office.  If  he  give  you  his  private  address  on  a  card, 
it  is  like  an  avowal  of  friendship ;  and  his  bearing  on 
being  introduced  is  cold,  even  though  he  is  seeking 
your  acquaintance,  and  is  studying  how  he  shall  serve 
you. 

It  was  an  odd  proof  of  this  impressive  energy,  that, 
in  my  lectures,  I  hesitated  to  read  and  threw  out  for  its 
impertinence  many  a  disparaging  phrase,  which  I  had 
been  accustomed  to  spin,  about  poor,  thin,  unable  mor- 
tals; so  much  had  the  fine  physique  and  the  personal 
vigor  of  this  robust  race  worked  on  my  imagination. 

I  happened  to  arrive  in  England  at  the  moment  of 
a  commercial  crisis.  But  it  was  evident  that,  let  who 
will  fail,  England  will  not.  These  people  have  sat  here 
a  thousand  years,  and  here  will  continue  to  sit.  They 
will  not  break  up,  or  arrive  at  any  desperate  revolution, 
like  their  neighbors ;  for  they  have  as  much  energy,  as 
much  continence  of  character,  as  they  ever  had.  The 
power  and  possession  which  surround  them  are  their  own 
creation,  and  they  exert  the  same  commanding  industry 
at  this  moment. 

They  are   positive,  methodical,   cleanly,   and  formal, 


M  ANNE  IIS.  85 

loving  routine,  and  conventional  ways ;  loving  truth  and 
religion,  to  be  sure,  but  inexorable  on  points  of  form. 
All  the  world  praises  the  comfort  and  private  appoint- 
ments of  an  English  inn,  and  of  English  households. 
You  are  sure  of  neatness  and  of  personal  decorum.  A 
Frenchman  ma*  possibly  be  clean :  an  Englishman  is 
conscientiously  clean.  A  certain  order  and  complete 
propriety  is  found  iu  his  dress  and  in  his  belongings. 

Born  in  a  harsh  and  wet  climate,  which  keeps  him  iu 
doors  whenever  he  is  at  rest,  and  being  of  an  affectionate 
and  loyal  temper,  he  dearly  loves  his  house.  If  he  is 
rich,  he  buys  a  demesne,  and  builds  a  hall ;  if  he  is  iu 
middle  condition,  he  spares  no  expense  on  his  house. 
Without,  it  is  all  planted ;  within,  it  is  wainscoted, 
cirved,  curtained,  hung  with  pictures,  and  filled  with 
good  furniture.  'T  is  a  passion  which  survives  all  others, 
to  deck  and  improve  it.  Hither  he  brings  all  that  is  rare 
and  costly,  and  with  the  national  tendency  to  sit  fast  in 
the  same  spot  for  many  generations,  it  comes  to  be,  iu 
the  course  of  time,  a  museum  of  heirlooms,  gifts,  and 
trophies  of  the  adventures  and  exploits  of  the  family. 
lie  is  very  fond  of  silver  plate,  and,  though  he  have  no 
gallery  of  portraits  of  his  ancestors,  he  has  of  their 
punch-bowls  and  porringers.  Incredible  amounts  of 
plate  are  found  in  good  houses,  and  the  poorest  have 
some  spoon  or  saucepan,  gift  of  a  godmother,  saved  out 
of  batter  times. 

An  English  family  consists  of  a  few  persons,  who, 
from  youth  to  ag2,  are  found  revolving  within  a  few  feet 
of  each  other,  as  if  tied  by  some  invisible  ligature,  teuse 
as  that  cartilage  which  we  have  seeu  attaching  the  twg 


86  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

Siamese.  England  produces  under  favorable  conditions 
of  ease  and  culture  the  finest  women  in  the  world. 
And,  as  the  men  are  affectionate  and  true-hearted,  the 
women  inspire  and  refine  them.  Nothing  can  be  more 
delicate  without  being  fantastical,  nothing  more  firm  and 
based  in  nature  and  sentiment,  than  tlie  courtship  and 
mutual  carriage  of  the  sexes.  The  song  of  1596  says, 
"  The  wife  of  every  Englishman  is  counted  blest."  The 
sentiment  of  Imogen  in  Cymbeline  is  copied  from  Eng- 
lish nature ;  and  not  less  the  Portia  of  Brutus,  the  Kate 
Percy,  and  the  Desdemona.  The  romance  does  not 
exceed  the  height  of  noble  passion  in  Mrs.  Lucy  Hutch- 
inson,  or  in  Lady  Russell,  or  even  as  one  discerns 
through  the  plain  prose  of  Pepys's  Diary,  the  sacred  habit 
of  an  English  wife.  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  could  not  bear 
the  death  of  his  wife.  Every  class  has  its  noble  and 
tender  examples. 

Domesticity  is  the  taproot  which  enables  the  nation  to 
branch  wide  and  high.  The  motive  and  end  of  their 
trade  and  empire  is  to  guard  the  independence  and 
privacy  of  their  homes.  Nothing  so  much  marks  their 
manners  as  the  concentration  on  their  household  ties. 
This  domesticity  is  carried  into  court  and  camp.  Wel- 
lington governed  India  and  Spain  and  his  own  troops, 
and  fought  battles  like  a  good  family-man,  paid  his  debts, 
and,  though  general  of  an  army  in  Spain,  could  not  stir 
abroad  for  fear  of  public  creditors.  This  taste  for  house 
and  parish  merits  has  of  course  its  doting  and  foolish 
side.  Mr.  Cobbett  attributes  the  huge  popularity  of 
Perceval,  prime  minister  in  1810,  to  the  fact  that  he 
W&<3  wont  to  go  to  church  every  Sunday,  with- a  large 


MANNERS.  87 

quarto  gilt  prayer-book  under  one  arm,  bis  wife  hang- 
ing on  the  other,  and  followed  by  a  long  brood  of  chil- 
dren. 

They  keep  their  old  customs,  costumes,  and  pomps, 
their  wig  and  mace,  sceptre  and  crown.  The  Middle 
Ages  still  lurk  in  the  streets  of  London.  The  Knights 
of  the  Bath  take  oath  to  defend  injured  ladies  ;  the  gold- 
stick-in-waiting  survives.  They  repeated  the  ceremonies 
of  the  eleventh  century  in  the  coronation  of  the  present 
Queen.  A  hereditary  tenure  is  natural  to  them.  Offices, 
farms,  trades,  and  traditions  descend  so.  Their  leases 
run  for  a  hundred  and  a  thousand  years.  Tenns  of 
service  and  partnership  are  lifelong,  or  are  inherited. 
"  Holdship  has  been  with  me,"  said  Lord  Eldon,  "  eight- 
and-twenty  years,  knows  all  my  business  and  books." 
Antiquity  of  usage  is  sanction  enough.  Wordsworth 
says  of  the  small  freeholders  of  Westmoreland,  "  Many 
of  these  humble  sons  of  the  hills  had  a  consciousness  that 
the  land  which  they  tilled  had  for  more  than  five  hun- 
dred years  been  possessed  by  men  of  the  same  name 
and  blood."  The  ship-carpenter  in  the  public  yards,  my 
lord's  gardener  and  porter,  have  been  there  for  more 
than  a  hundred  years,  grandfather,  father,  and  son. 

The  English  power  resides  also  in  their  dislike  of 
change.  They  have  difficulty  in  bringing  their  reason  to 
act,  and  on  all  occasions  use  their  memory  first.  As 
soon  as  they  have  rid  themselves  of  some  grievance,  and 
settled  the  better  practice,  they  make  haste  to  fix  it  as 
a  finality,  and  never  wish  to  hear  of  alteration  more. 

Every  Englishman  is  an  embryonic  chancellor :  his 
instinct  is  to  search  for  a  precedent.  The  favorite  phrase 


88  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

of  their  law  is,  "a  custom  whereof  the  memory  of  man 
runneth  not  back  to  the  contrary."  The  barons  say, 
"  Nolumus  mutari" ;  and  the  cockneys  stifle  the  curi- 
osity of  the  foreigner  on  the  reason  of  any  practice,  with, 
"Lord,  sir,  it  \vas  always  so."  They  hate  innovation. 
Bacon  told  them,  Time  was  the  right  reformer ;  Chat- 
ham, that  "  confidence  was  a  plant  of  slow  growth  " ; 
Canning,  to  "  advance  with  the  times  "  ;  and  Welling- 
ton, that  "habit  was  ten  times  nature."  All  their 
statesmen  learn  the  irresistibility  of  the  tide  of  custom, 
and  have  invented  many  fine  phrases  to  cover  this  slow- 
uess  of  perception,  and  prehensility  of  tail. 

A  sea-shell  should  be  the  crest  of  England,  not  only 
because  it  represents  a  power  built  on  the  waves,  but 
also  the  hard  finish  of  the  men.  The  Englishman  is 
finished  like  a  cowry  or  a  murex.  After  the  spire  and 
the  spines  are  formed,  or,  with  the  formation,  a  juice 
exudes,  and  a  hard  enamel  varnishes  every  part.  The 
keeping  of  the  proprieties  is  as  indispensable  as  clean 
linen.  No  merit  quite  countervails  the  want  of  this, 
whilst  this  sometimes  stands  in  lieu  of  all.  "  'T  is  in 
bad  taste,"  is  the  most  formidable  word  an  English- 
man can  pronounce.  But  this  japan  costs  them  dear. 
There  is  a  prose  in  certain  Englishmen,  which  exceeds 
in  wooden  deadness  all  rivalry  with  other  countrymen. 
There  is  a  knell  in  the  conceit  and  externality  of  their 
voice,  which  seems  to  say,  Leave  all  hope  behind.  In 
this  Gibraltar  of  propriety,  mediocrity  gets  intrenched, 
and  consolidated,  and  founded  in  adamant.  An  English- 
man of  fashion  is  like  one  of  those  souvenirs,  bound  in 
gold  vellum,  enriched  with  delicate  engravings,  on  thick 


MANNERS.  89 

hot-pressed  paper,  fit  for  the  hands  of  ladies  and  princes, 
but  with  nothing  in  it  worth  reading  or  remembering. 

A  severe  decorum  rules  the  court  and  the  cottage. 
When  Thalberg,  the  pianist,  was  one  evening  performing 
before  the  Queen,  at  Windsor,  in  a  private  party,  the 
Queen  accompanied  him  with  her  voice.  The  circum- 
stance took  air,  and  all  England  shuddered  from  sea  to 
sea.  The  indecorum  was  never  repeated.  Cold,  repres- 
sive manners  prevail.  No  enthusiasm  is  permitted  ex- 
cept at  the  opera.  They  avoid  everything  marked.  They 
require  a  tone  of  voice  that  excites  no  attention  in  the 
room.  Sir  Philip  Sidney  is  one  of  the  patron  saints  of 
England,  of  whom  Wottou  said,  "  His  wit  was  the  meas- 
ure of  congruity." 

Pretension  and  vaporing  are  once  for  all  distasteful. 
They  keep  to  the  other  extreme  of  low  tone  in  dress  and 
manners.  They  avoid  pretension  and  go  right  to  the 
heart  of  the  thing.  They  hate  nonsense,  sentimentalism, 
and  higliflovvn  expression ;  they  use  a  studied  plainness. 
Even  Brummell  their  fop  was  marked  by  the  severest 
simplicity  in  dress.  They  value  themselves  on  the  ab- 
sence of  everything  theatrical  in  the  public  business,  and 
on  conciseness  and  going  to  the  point,  in  private  affairs. 

In  an  aristocratical  country,  like  England,  not  the 
Trial  by  Jury,  but  the  dinner  is  the  capital  institution. 
It  is  the  mode  of  doing  honor  to  a  stranger,  to  invite  him 
to  eat,  —  and  has  been  for  many  hundred  years.  "And 
they  think,"  says  the  Venetian  traveller  of  1500,  "no 
greater  honor  can  be  conferred  or  received,  than  to  invite 
others  to  eat  with  them,  or  to  be  invited  themselves,  and 
they  would  sooner  give  five  or  six  ducats  to  provide  an 


90  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

entertainment  for  a  person,  than  a  groat  to  assist  him  in 
any  distress."*  It  is  reserved  to  the  end  of  the  day,  the 
family-hour  being  generally  six,  in  London,  and,  if  any 
company  is  expected,  one  or  two  hours  later.  Every  one 
dresses  for  dinner,  in  his  own  house,  or  in  another  man's. 
The  guests  are  expected  to  arrive  within  half  an  hour  of 
the  time  fixed  by  card  of  invitation,  and  nothing  but  death 
or  mutilation  is  permitted  to  detain  them.  The  English 
dinner  is  precisely  the  model  on  which  our  own  are  con- 
structed in  the  Atlantic  cities.  The  company  sit  one  or 
two  hours,  before  the  ladies  leave  the  table.  The  gen- 
tlemen remain  over  their  wine  an  hour  longer,  and  re- 
join the  ladies  in  the  drawing-room,  and  take  coffee. 
The  dress  dinner  generates  a  talent  of  table-talk,  which 
reaches  great  perfection:  the  stories  are  so  good,  that 
one  is  sure  they  must  have  been  often  told  before,  to 
have  got  such  happy  turns.  Hither  come  all  manner  of 
clever  projects,  bits  of  popular  science,  of  practical  in- 
vention, of  miscellaneous  humor;  political,  literary,  and 
personal  news;  railroads,  horses,  diamonds,  agriculture, 
horticulture,  pisciculture,  and  wine. 

English  stories,  bon-motx,  and  the  recorded  table-talk 
of  their  wits,  are  as  good  as  the  best  of  the  French.  In 
America,  we  are  apt  scholars,  but  have  not  yet  attained 
the  same  perfection  :  for  the  range  of  nations  from  which 
London  draws,  and  the  steep  contrasts  of  condition,  create 
the  picturesque  in  society,  as  broken  country  makes  pic- 
turesque landscape,  whilst  our  prevailing  equality  makes 
a  prairie  tameness  -.  and  secondly,  because  the  usage  of  a 

*  "  Relation  of  England."     Printed  by  the  Camden  Society. 


TRUTH.  91 

dress-dinner  every  day  at  dark  has  a  tendency  to  hive  and 
produce  to  advantage  everything  good.  Much  attrition 
has  worn  every  sentence  into  a  bullet.  Also  one  meets 
now  and  then  with  polished  men,  who  know  everything, 
have  tried  everything,  can  do  everything,  and  are  quite 
superior  to  letters  and  science.  What  could  they  not,  if 
only  they  would  ? 

CHAPTER   VII. 

TRUTH. 

THE  Teutonic  tribes  have  a  national  singleness  of  heart, 
which  contrasts  with  the  Latin  races.  The  German  name 
has  a  proverbial  significance  of  sincerity  and  honest  mean- 
ing. The  arts  bear  testimony  to  it.  The  faces  of  clergy 
and  laity  in  old  sculptures  and  illuminated  missals  are 
charged  with  earnest  belief.  Add  to  this  hereditary  rec- 
titude, the  punctuality  and  precise  dealing  which  com- 
merce creates,  and  you  have  the  English  truth  and  credit. 
The  government  strictly  performs  its  engagements.  The 
subjects  do  not  understand  trifling  on  its  part.  When 
any  breach  of  promise  occurred,  in  the  old  days  of  pre- 
rogative, it  was  resented  by  the  people  as  an  intolerable 
grievance.  And,  in  modern  times,  any  slipperiness  in  the 
government  of  political  faith,  or  any  repudiation  or  crook- 
edness in  matters  of  finance,  would  bring  the  whole  nation 
to  a  committee  of  inquiry  and  reform.  Private  men  keep 
their  promises,  never  so  trivial.  Down  goes  the  flying 
word  on  the  tablets,  and  is  indelible  as  Domesday  Book. 

Their  practical  power  rests  on  their  national  sincerity. 


92  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

Veracity  derives  from  instinct,  and  marks  superiority  in 
organization.  Nature  has  endowed  some  animals  with 
cunning,  as  a  compensation  for  strength  withheld;  but 
it  has  provoked  the  malice  of  all  others,  as  if  avengers  of 
public  wrong.  In  the  nobler  kinds,  where  strength  could 
be  afforded,  her  races  are  loyal  to  truth,  as  truth  is  the 
foundation  of  the  social  state.  Beasts  that  make  no 
truce  with  man,  do  not  break  faith  with  each  other. 
'T  is  said,  that  the  wolf,  who  makes  a  cache  of  his  prey, 
and  brings  his  fellows  with  him  to  the  spot,  if,  on  digging 
it  is  not  found,  is  instantly  and  unresistingly  torn  in  pieces. 
English  veracity  seems  to  result  on  a  sounder  animal  struc- 
ture, as  if  they  could  afford  it.  They  are  blunt  in  saying 
what  they  think,  sparing  of  promises,  and  they  require 
plain  dealing  of  others.  We  will  not  have  to  do  with 
a  man  in  a  mask.  Let  us  know  the  truth.  Draw  a 
straight  line,  hit  whom  and  where  it  will.  Alfred,  whom 
the  affection  of  the  nation  makes  the  type  of  their  race,  is 
called  by  a  writer  at  the  Norman  Conquest,  the  truth- 
speaker  ;  Alueredus  veridicus.  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth 
says  of  King  Aurelius,  uncle  of  Arthur,  that  "  above  all 
things  he  hated  a  lie."  The  Northman  Guttorm  said  to 
King  Olaf,  "It  is  royal  work  to  fulfil  royal  words." 
The  mottoes  of  their  families  are  monitory  proverbs,  as, 
Farefac,  —  Say,  do,  —  of  the  Fairfaxes  ;  Say  and  seal,  of 
the  house  of  Fieimes ;  Vero  nil  verim,  of  the  De  Veres. 
To  be  king  of  their  word,  is  their  pride.  When  they  un- 
mask cant,  they  say,  "The  English  of  this  is,"  etc.;  and 
to  give  the  lie  is  the  extreme  insult.  The  phrase  of  the 
lowest  of  the  people  is  "  honor-bright,"  and  their  vulgar 
praise,  "  his  word  is  as  good  as  his  bond."  They  hate 


TRUTH.  93 

shuffling  and  equivocation,  and  the  cause  is  damaged  in 
the  public  opinion,  on  which  any  paltering  can  be  fixed. 
Even  Lord  Chesterfield,  with  his  French  breeding,  when 
he  came  to  define  a  gentleman,  declared  that  truth  made 
his  distinction ;  and  nothing  ever  spoken  by  him  would 
find  so  hearty  a  suffrage  from  his  nation.  The  Duke  of 
Wellington,  who  had  the  best  right  to  say  so,  advises  the 
Trench  General  Kellermaun,  that  he  may  rely  on  the  pa- 
role of  an  English  officer.  The  English,  of  all  classes, 
value  themselves  on  this  trait,  as  distinguishing  them 
from  the  French,  who,  in  the  popular  belief,  are  more 
polite  than  true.  An  Englishman  understates,  avoids  the 
superlative,  checks  himself  in  compliments,  alleging,  that 
in  the  French  language,  one  cannot  speak  without  lying. 

They  love  reality  in  wealth,  power,  hospitality,  and  do 
not  easily  learn  to  make  a  show,  and  take  the  world  as 
it  goes.  They  are  not  fond  of  ornaments,  and  if  they 
wear  them,  they  must  be  gems.  They  read  gladly  in  old 
Fuller,  that  a  lady,  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  "would 
have  as  patiently  digested  a  lie,  as  the  wearing  of  false 
stones  or  pendants  of  counterfeit  pearl."  They  have  the 
earth-hunger,  or  preference  for  property  in  land,  which 
is  said  to  mark  the  Teutonic  nations.  They  build  of 
stone ;  public  and  private  buildings  are  massive  and 
durable.  In  comparing  their  ships'  houses,  and  public 
offices  with  the  American,  it  is  commonly  said,  that  they 
spend  a  pound,  where  we  spend  a  dollar.  Plain  rich 
clothes,  plain  rich  equipage,  plain  rich  finish  throughout 
their  house  and  belongings,  mark  the  English  truth. 

They  confide  in  each  other,  —  English  believes  in  Eng- 
lish. The  French  feel  the  superiority  of  this  probity. 


94  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

The  Englishman  is  not  springing  a  trap  for  his  admira- 
tion, but  is  honestly  minding  his  business.  The  French- 
man is  vain.  Madame  de  Stael  says,  that  the  English 
irritated  Napoleon,  mainly,  because  they  have  found  out 
how  to  unite  success  with  honesty.  She  was  not  aware 
how  wide  an  application  her  foreign  readers  would  give 
to  the  remark.  Wellington  discovered  the  ruin  of  Bona- 
parte's affairs,  by  his  own  probity.  He  augured  ill  of  the 
empire,  as  soon  as  he  saw  that  it  was  mendacious,  and 
lived  by  war.  If  war  do  not  bring  in  its  sequel  new 
trade,  better  agriculture  and  manufactures,  but  only 
games,  fireworks,  and  spectacles,  —  no  prosperity  could 
support  it ;  much  less,  a  nation  decimated  for  conscripts, 
and  out  of  pocket,  like  France.  So  he  drudged  for  years 
on  his  military  works  at  Lisbon,  and  from  this  base  at  last 
extended  his  gigantic  lines  to  Waterloo,  believing  in  his 
countrymen  and  their  syllogisms  above  all  the  rhodomon- 
tade  of  Europe. 

At  a  St.  George's  festival,  in  Montreal,  where  I  hap- 
pened to  be  a  guest,  since  my  return  home,  I  observed 
that  the  chairman  complimented  his  compatriots,  by  say- 
ing, "  they  confided  that  wherever  they  met  an  English- 
man, they  found  a  man  who  •would  speak  the  truth." 
And  one  cannot  think  this  festival  fruitless,  if,  all  over 
the  world,  on  the  23d  of  April,  wherever  two  or  three 
English  are  found,  they  meet  to  encourage  each  other  in 
the  nationality  of  veracity. 

In  the  power  of  saying  rude  truth,  sometimes  in  the 
lion's  mouth,  no  men  surpass  them.  On  the  king's  birth- 
day, when  each  bishop  was  expected  to  offer  the  king  a 
purse  of  gold,  Latimer  gave  Henry  VIII.  a  copy  of  the 


TRUTH.  95 

Vulgate,  with  a  mark  at  the  passage,  "Whoremongers 
and  adulterers  God  will  judge "  ;  and  they  so  honor 
stoutness  in  each  other,  that  the  king  passed  it  over. 
They  are  tenacious  of  their  belief,  and  cannot  easily 
change  their  opinions  to  suit  the  hour.  They  are  like 
ships  with  too  much  head  on  to  come  quickly  about,  nor 
will  prosperity  or  even  adversity  be  allowed  to  shake 
their  habitual  view  of  conduct.  Whilst  I  was  in  Lon- 
don, M.  Guizot  arrived  there  on  his  escape  from  Paris, 
in  February,  1843.  Many  private  friends  called  on  him. 
His  name  was  immediately  proposed  as  an  honorary 
member  to  the  Athenaeum.  M.  Guizot  was  blackballed. 
Certainly,  they  knew  the  distinction  of  his  name.  But 
the  Englishman  is  not  fickle.  He  had  really  made  up  his 
mind,  now  for  years  as  he  read  his  newspaper,  to  hate 
and  despise  M.  Guizot ;  and  the  altered  position  of  the 
man  as  an  illustrious  exile,  and  a  guest  in  the  country, 
makes  no  difference  to  him,  as  it  would  instantly,  to  an 
American. 

They  require  the  same  adherence,  thorough  conviction 
and  reality  in  public  men.  It  is  the  want  of  character 
which  makes  the  low  reputation  of  the  Irish  members. 
"  See  them,"  they  said,  "  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven 
all  voting  like  sheep,  never  proposing  anything,  and  all 
but  four  voting  the  income  tax,"  —  which  was  an  ill- 
judged  concession  of  the  government,  relieving  Irish 
property  from  the  burdens  charged  on  English. 

They  have  a  horror  of  adventurers  in  or  out  of  Parlia- 
ment. The  ruling  passion  of  Englishmen,  in  these  days, 
is  a  terror  of  humbug.  In  the  same  proportion,  they 
value  honesty,  stoutness,  and  adherence  to  your  own. 


96  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

They  like  a  man  committed  to  his  objects.  They  hate 
the  French,  as  frivolous ;  they  hate  the  Irish,  as  aimless  ; 
they  hate  the  Germans,  as  professors.  In  February, 
1848,  they  said,  Look,  the  Trench  king  and  his  party 
fell  for  want  of  a  shot;  they  had  not  conscience  to  shoot, 
so  entirely  was  the  pith  and  heart  of  monarchy  eaten  out. 

They  attack  their  own  politicians  every  day,  on  the 
same  grounds,  as  adventurers.  They  love  stoutness  in 
standing  for  your  right,  in  declining  money  or  promotion 
that  costs  any  concession.  The  barrister  refuses  the  silk 
gown  of  Queen's  Counsel,  if  his  junior  have  it  one  day 
earlier.  Lord  Collingwood  would  not  accept  his  medal 
for  victory  on  14th  February,  1797,  if  he  did  not  receive 
one  for  victory  on  1st  June,  1794 ;  and  the  long-with- 
holden  medal  was  accorded.  When  Castlereagh  dis- 
suaded Lord  Wellington  from  going  to  the  king's  levee, 
until  the  unpopular  Cintra  business  had  been  explained, 
he  replied  :  "  You  furnish  me  a  reason  for  going.  I  will 
go  to  this,  or  I  will  never  go  to  a  king's  levee."  The 
radical  mob  at  Oxford  cried  after  the  tory  Lord  Eldon, 
"There's  old  Eldon;  cheer  him;  he  never  ratted." 
They  have  given  the  parliamentary  nickname  of  Trimmers 
to  the  time-servers,  \vhom  English  character  does  not 
love* 

They  are  very  liable  in  their  politics  to  extraordinary 
delusions,  thus,  to  believe  what  stands  recorded  in  the 

*  It  is  an  unlucky  moment  to  remember  these  sparkles  of 
solitary  virtue  in  the  face  of  the  honors  lately  paid  in  England 
to  the  Emperor  Louis  Napoleon.  I  am  sure  that  no  English- 
man whom  I  had  the  happiness  to  know,  consented,  when  the 
aristocracy  and  the  commons  of  London  cringed  like  a  Neapoli- 


TRUTH.  97 

gravest  books,  that  the  movement  of  10th  April,  1848, 
was  urged  or  assisted  by  foreigners :  which,  to  be  sure, 
is  paralleled  by  the  democratic  whimsey  in  this  country, 
which  I  have  noticed  to  be  shared  by  men  sane  on  other 
points,  that  the  English  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  agita- 
tion of  slavery,  in  American  politics :  and  then  again  to 
the  French  popular  legends  on  the  subject  of  perfidious 
Albion.  But  suspicion  will  make  fools  of  nations  as  of 
citizens. 

A  slow  temperament  makes  them  less  rapid  and  ready 
than  other  countrymen,  and  has  given  occasion  to  the 
observation  that  English  wit  comes  afterwards,  —  which 
the  French  denote  as  esprit  d'escalier.  This  dulness 
makes  their  attachment  to  home,  and  their  adherence  in 
all  foreign  countries  to  home  habits.  The  Englishman 
who  visits  Mount  Etna  will  carry  his  teakettle  to  the 
top.  The  old  Italian  author  of  the  "  Relation  of  Eng- 
land "  (in  1500)  says :  "  I  have  it  on  the  best  informa- 
tion, that,  when  the  war  is  actually  raging  most  furiously, 
they  will  seek  for  good  eating,  and  all  their  other  com- 
forts, without  thinking  what  harm  might  befall  them." 
Then  their  eyes  seem  to  be  set  at  the  bottom  of  a  tunnel, 
and  they  affirm  the  one  small  fnct  they  know,  with  the 
best  faith  in  the  world  that  nothing  else  exists.  And, 
as  their  own  belief  in  guineas  is  perfect,  they  readily,  on 
all  occasions,  apply  the  pecuniary  argument  as  final. 
Thus  when  the  Rochester  tappings  began  to  be  heard  of 

tan  rabble,  before  a  successful  thief.     But  —  how  to  resist  one 
step,  though  odious,  in  a  linked  series  of  state  necessities  ?  — 
Governments  must  always  learn  too  late,  that  the  use  of  dis- 
honest agents  is  as  ruinous  for  nations  as  for  single  men. 
5  u 


98  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

in  England,  a  man  deposited  £100  hi  a  sealed  box  in  the 
Dublin  Bank,  and  then  advertised  in  the  newspapers  to 
all  somnambulists,  mesmerizers,  and  others,  that  whoever 
could  tell  him  the  number  of  his  note  should  have  the 
money.  He  let  it  lie  there  six  mouths,  the  newspapers 
now  and  then,  at  his  instance,  stimulating  the  attention 
of  the  adepts ;  but  none  could  ever  tell  him ;  and  he 
said,  "  Now  let  me  never  be  bothered  more  with  this 
proven  lie."  It  is  told  of  a  good  Sir  John,  that  he  heard 
a  case  stated  by  counsel,  and  made  up  his  mind ;  then 
the  couusel  for  the  other  side  taking  their  turn  to  speak, 
he  found  himself  so  unsettled  and  perplexed,  that  he 
exclaimed,  "  So  help  me  God !  I  will  never  listen  to 
evidence  again."  Any  number  of  delightful  examples  of 
this  English  stolidity  are  the  anecdotes  of  Europe.  I 
knew  a  very  worthy  man,  —  a  magistrate,  I  believe  he  was, 
in  the  town  of  Derby,  —  who  went  to  the  opera,  to  see 
Malibran.  In  one  scene,  the  heroine  was  to  rush  across 
a  ruined  bridge.  Mr.  B.  arose,  and  mildly  yet  firmly 
called  the  attention  of  the  audience  and  the  performers 
to  the  fact  that,  in  his  judgment,  the  bridge  was  unsafe  ! 
This  English  stolidity  contrasts  with  French  wit  and 
tact.  The  French,  it  is  commonly  said,  have  greatly 
more  influence  in  Europe  than  the  English.  What  in- 
fluence the  English  have  is  by  brute  force  of  wealth  and 
power ;  that  of  the  French  by  affinity  and  talent.  The 
Italian  is  subtle,  the  Spaniard  treacherous  :  tortures,  it 
was  said,  could  never  wrest  from  an  Egyptian  the  confes- 
sion of  a  secret.  None  of  these  traits  belong  to  the 
Englishman.  His  choler  and  conceit  force  everything 
out.  Defoe,  who  knew  his  countrymen  well,  says  of 
them :  — 


CHARACTER.  99 

"  In  close  intrigue,  their  faculty 's  but  weak, 
For  generally  whate'er  they  know,  they  speak, 
And  often  their  own  counsels  undermine 
By  mere  infirmity  without  design; 
From  whenre,  the  learned  say,  it  doth  proceed, 
That  English  treasons  never  can  succeed ; 
For  they  're  so  open-hearted,  you  may  know 
Their  own  most  secret  thoughts,  and  others'  too." 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

CHARACTER. 

THE  English  race  are  reputed  morose.  I  do  not 
know  that  they  have  sadder  brows  than  their  neighbors 
of  northern  climates.  They  are  sad  by  comparison  with 
the  singing  and  dancing  nations :  not  sadder,  but  slow 
and  staid,  as  finding  their  joys  at  home.  They,  too, 
believe  that  where  there  is  no  enjoyment  of  life,  there 
can  be  no  vigor  and  art  in  speech  or  thought ;  that  your 
merry  heart  goes  all  the  way,  your  sad  one  tires  in  a 
mile.  This  trait  of  gloom  has  been  fixed  on  them  by 
French  travellers,  who,  from  Froissart,  Voltaire,  Le  Sage, 
Mirabeau,  down  to  the  lively  journalists  of  t\\efeuille(ons, 
have  spent  their  wit  on  the  solemnity  of  their  neighbors. 
The  French  say,  gay  conversation  is  unknown  in  their 
island:  the  Englishman  finds  no  relief  from  reflection 
except  in  reflection  :  when  he  wishes  for  amusement,  he 
goes  to  work:  his  hilarity  is  like  an  attack  of  fever. 
Religion,  the  theatre,  and  the  reading  the  books  of  his 
country,  all  feed  and  increase  his  natural  melancholy. 


100  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

The  police  does  not  interfere  with  public  diversions.  It 
thinks  itself  bound  in  duty  to  respect  the  pleasures  and 
rare  gayety  of  this  inconsolable  nation ;  and  their  well- 
known  courage  is  entirely  attributable  to  their  disgust 
of  life. 

I  suppose  their  gravity  of  demeanor  and  their  few 
words  have  obtained  this  reputation.  As  compared  with 
the  Americans,  I  think  them  cheerful  and  contented. 
Young  people,  in  our  country,  are  much  more  prone  to 
melancholy.  The  English  have  a  mild  aspect,  and  a 
ringing,  cheerful  voice.  They  are  large-natured,  and  not 
so  easily  amused  as  the  southerners,  and  are  among  them 
as  grown  people  among  children,  requiring  war,  or  trade, 
or  engineering,  or  science,  instead  of  frivolous  games. 
They  are  proud  and  private,  and,  even  if  disposed  to 
recreation,  will  avoid  an  open  garden.  They  sported 
sadly  ;  Us  s'amusaient  tristement,  selon  la  couiume  de  leur 
pays,  said  Froissart ;  and,  I  suppose,  never  nation  built 
their  party  walls  so  thick,  or  their  garden  fences  so  high. 
Meat  and  wine  produce  no  effect  on  them :  they  are  just 
as  cold,  quiet,  and  composed,  at  the  end,  as  at  the  begin- 
ning of  dinner. 

The  reputation  of  taciturnity  they  have  enjoyed  for  six 
or  seven  hundred  years;  and  a  kind  of  pride  in  bad 
public  speaking  is  noted  in  the  House  of  Commons,  as 
if  they  were  willing  to  show  that  they  did  not  live  by 
their  tongues,  or  thought  they  spoke  well  enough  if  they 
had  the  tone  of  gentlemen.  In  mixed  company,  they 
shut  their  mouths.  A  Yorkshire  mill-owner  told  me,  he 
had  ridden  more  than  once  all  the  way  from  London  to 
Leeds,  in  the  first-class  carriage,  with  the  same  persons, 


CHARACTER.  101 

and  no  word  exchanged.  The  club-houses  were  estab- 
lished to  cultivate  social  habits,  aud  it  is  rare  that  more 
than  two  eat  together,  and  oftenest  one  eats  alone.  Was 
it  then  a  stroke  of  humor  in  the  serious  Swedenborg,  or 
was  it  only  his  pitiless  logic,  that  made  him  shut  up  the 
English  souls  in  a  heaven  by  themselves  ? 

They  are  contradictorily  described  as  sour,  splenetic, 
and  stubborn,  —  and  as  mild,  sweet,  and  sensible.  The 
truth  is,  they  have  great  range  and  variety  of  character. 
Commerce  sends  abroad  multitudes  of  different  classes. 
The  choleric  Welshman,  the  fervid  Scot,  the  bilious  resi- 
dent in  the  East  or  West  Indies,  are  wide  of  the  perfect 
behavior  of  the  educated  and  dignified  man  of  family.  So 
is  the  burly  fanner ;  so  is  the  country  'squire,  with  his 
narrow  and  violent  life.  In  every  inn,  is  the  Commer- 
cbl-Room,  in  which  '  travellers,'  or  bagmen  who  carry 
patterns,  and  solicit  orders,  for  the  manufacturers,  are 
wont  to  be  entertained.  It  easily  happens  that  this  class 
should  characterize  England  to  the  foreigner,  who  meets 
them  on  the  road,  and  at  every  public  house,  whilst  the 
gentry  avoid  the  taverns,  or  seclude  themselves  whilst 
in  them. 

But  these  classes  are  the  right  English  stock,  and  may 
fairly  show  the  national  qualities,  before  yet  art  and  edu- 
cation have  dealt  with  them.  They  are  good  lovers, 
good  haters,  slow  but  obstinate  admirers,  and,  in  all 
things,  very  much  steeped  in  their  temperament,  like 
men  hardly  awaked  from  deep  sleep,  which  they  enjoy. 
Their  habits  and  instincts  cleave  to  nature.  They  are  of 
the  earth,  earthy ;  and  of  the  sea,  as  the  sea-kinds,  at- 
tached to  it  for  what  it  yields  them,  and  not  from  any 


102  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

sentiment.  They  are  full  of  coarse  strength,  rude  exer- 
cise, butcher's  meat,  and  sound  sleep ;  and  suspect  any 
poetic  insinuation  or  any  hint  for  the  conduct  of  life 
which  reflects  oil  this  auimal  existence,  as  if  somebody 
were  fumbling  at  the  umbilical  ccrd  and  might  stop  their 
supplies.  They  doubt  a  man's  sound  judgment,  if  he 
does  not  eat  with  appetite,  and  shake  their  heads  if  he  is 
particularly  chaste.  Take  them  as  they  come,  you  shall 
find  in  the  common  people  a  surly  indifference,  sometimes 
grnffness  and  ill  temper ;  and,  in  minds  of  more  power, 
i.iagazines  of  inexhaustible  war,  challenging 

"  The  ruggedest  hour  that  time  and  spite  dare  bring 
To  frown  upon  the  enraged  Northumberland." 

They  are  headstrong  believers  and  defenders  of  their 
opinion,  and  not  less  resolute  in  maintaining  their  whim 
and  perversity.  Hezekiah  Woodward  wrote  a  book 
against  the  Lord's  Prayer.  And  one  can  believe  that 
Burton  the  Anatomist  of  Melancholy,  having  predicted 
from  the  stars  the  hour  of  his  death,  slipped  the  knot 
himself  round  his  own  neck,  not  to  falsify  his  horoscope. 
Their  looks  bespeak  an  invincible  stoutness  ;  they  have 
extreme  difficulty  to  run  away,  and  will  die  game.  Wel- 
lington said  of  the  young  coxcombs  of  the  Life-Guards 
delicately  brought  up,  "  But  the  puppies  fight  well "  ; 
and  Nelson  said  of  his  sailors,  "  They  really  mind  shot 
no  more  than  peas."  Of  absolute  stoutness  no  nation 
lias  more  or  better  examples.  They  are  good  at  storm- 
ing redoubts,  at  boarding  frigates,  at  dying  in  the  last 
ditch,  or  any  desperate  service  which  has  daylight  and 
honor  in  it ;  but  not,  I  think,  at  enduring  the  rack,  or  any 


CHARACTER.  103 

passive  obedience/ like  jumping  off  a  castle-roof  at  the,, 
word  of  a  czar/  Being  both  vascular  and  highly  organ- 
ized, so  as  to  be  very  sensible  of  pain  ;  and  intellectual, 
so  as  to  see  reason  and  glory  in  a  matter. 

Of  that  constitutional  force,  which  yields  the  supplies 
of  the  day,  they  have  the  more  than  enough,  the  excess 
which  creates  courage  on  fortitude,  genius  in  poetry,  in- 
vention in  mechanics,  enterprise  in  trade,  magnificence 
in  wealth,  splendor  in  ceremonies,  petulance  and  projects 
in  youth.  The  young  men  have  a  rude  health  which 
runs  into  peccant  humors.  They  drink  brandy  like  water, 
cannot  expend  their  quantities  of  waste  strength  on 
riding,  hunting,  swimming,  and  fencing,  and  run  into 
absurd  frolics  with  the  gravity  of  the  Eumenides.  They 
stoutly  carry  into  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  earth  their 
turbulent  sense ;  leaving  no  lie  uncontradicted,  no  pre- 
tension unexamined.  They  chew  hasheesh ;  cut  them- 
selves with  poisoned  creases ;  swing  their  hammock  in 
the  boughs  of  the  Bohon  Upas  ;  taste  every  poison  ;  buy 
every  secret ;  at  Naples,  they  put  St.  Januarius's  blood 
in  an  alembic;  they  saw  a  hole  into  the  head  of  the 
"  winking  Virgin,"  to  know  why  she  winks  ;  measure 
with  an  English  foot-rule  every  cell  of  the  Inquisition, 
every  Turkish  caaba,  every  Holy  of  holies ;  translate  and 
send  to  B^ntley  the  arcanum  bribed  and  bullied  away  from 
shuddering  Bramins  ;  and  measure  Iheir  own  strength  by 
the  terror  they  cause.  These  travellers  are  of  every  class, 
the  best  and  the  worst;  and  it  may  easily  happen  that 
those  of  rudest  behavior  are  taken  notice  of  and  remem- 
bered. The  Saxon  melancholy  in  the  vulgar  rich  and 
poor  appears  as  gushes  of  ill-humor,  which  every  check 


104  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

exasperates  into  sarcasm  and  vituperation.  There  are 
multitudes  of  rude  young  English  who  have  the  self-suffi- 
ciency and  bluntness  of  their  nation,  and  who,  with  their 
disdain  of  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  with  this  indigestion 
and  choler,  have  made  the  English  traveller  a  proverb  for 
uncomfortable  and  offensive  manners.  It  was  no  bad  de- 
scription of  the  Briton  generically,  what  was  said  two 
hundred  years  ago,  of  one  particular  Oxford  scholar: 
"  He  was  a  very  bold  man,  uttered  anything  that  came 
into  his  mind,  not  only  among  his  companions,  but  in 
public  coffee-houses,  and  would  often  speak  his  mind  of 
particular  persons  then  accidentally  present,  without 
examining  the  company  he  was  in ;  for  which  he  was 
often  reprimanded,  and  several  times  threatened  to  be 
kicked  and  beaten." 

The  common  Englishman  is  prone  to  forget  a  cardinal 
article  in  the  bill  of  social  rights,  that  every  man  has  a 
right  to  his  own  ears.  No  man  can  claim  to  usurp  more 
than  a  few  cubic  feet  of  the  audibilities  of  a  public  room, 
or  to  put  upon  the  company  the  loud  statements  of  bis 
crotchets  or  personalities. 

But  it  is  in  the  deep  traits  of  race  that  the  fortunes 
of  nations  are  written,  and  however  derived,  whether  a 
happier  tribe  or  mixture  of  tribes,  the  air,  or  what  cir- 
cumstance, that  mixed  for  them  the  golden  mean  of  tem- 
perament, —  here  exists  the  best  stock  in  the  world, 
broad-fronted,  broad-bottomed,  best  for  depth,  range, 
and  equability,  men  of  aplomb  and  reserves,  great  range 
and  many  moods,  strong  instincts,  yet  apt  for  culture; 
war-class  as  well  as  clerks  ;  earls  and  tradesmen ;  wise 
minority,  as  well  as  foolish  majority  ;  abysmal  tempera 


CHARACTER.  105 

ment,  hiding  wells  of  wrath,  and  glooms  on  which  no 
sunshine  settles;  alternated  with  a  common-sense  and 
humanity  which  hold  them  fast  to  every  piece  of  cheerful 
duty;  making  this  temperament  a  sea  to  which  all  storms 
are  superficial ;  a  race  to  which  their  fortunes  flow,  as  if 
they  alone  had  the  elastic  organization  at  once  fine  and 
robust  enough  for  dominion ;  as  if  the  burly,  inexpres- 
sive, now  mute  and  contumacious,  now  fierce  and  sharp- 
tongued  dragon,  which  once  made  the  island  light  with 
his  fiery  breath,  had  bequeathed  his  ferocity  to  his  con- 
queror. They  hide  virtues  under  vices,  or  the  semblance 
of  them.  It  is  the  misshapen  hairy  Scandinavian  troll 
again,  who  lifts  the  cart  out  of  the  mire,  or  "  threshes 
the  corn  that  ten  day-laborers  could  not  end,"  but  it  is 
done  in  the  dark,  and  with  muttered  maledictions.  He 
is  a  churl  with  a  soft  place  in  his  heart,  whose  speech  is 
a  brash  of  bitter  waters,  but  who  loves  to  help  you  at  a 
pinch.  He  says  no,  but  serves  you,  and  your  thanks 
disgust  him.  Here  was  lately  a  cross-grained  miser,  odd 
and  ugly,  resembling  in  countenance  the  portrait  of 
Punch,  with  the  laugh  left  out ;  rich  by  his  own  indus- 
try ;  sulking  in  a  lonely  house  ;  who  never  gave  a  dinner 
to  any  man,  and  disdained  all  courtesies ;  yet  as  true  a 
worshipper  of  beauty  in  form  and  color  as  ever  existed, 
and  profusely  pouring  over  the  cold  mind  of  his  country- 
men creations  of  grace  and  truth,  removing  the  reproach 
of  sterility  from  English  art,  catching  from  their  savage 
climate  every  fine  hint,  and  importing  into  their  galleries 
every  tint  and  trait  of  sunnier  cities  and  skies ;  making 
an  era  in  painting ;  and,  when  he  saw  that  the  splendor 
of  one  of  his  pictures  in  the  Exhibition  dimmed  his 
5* 


106  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

rival's  that  hung  next  it,  secretly  took  a  brush  and  black- 
ened his  own. 

They  do  not  wear  their  heart  in  -their  sleeve  for  daws 
to  peck  at.  They  have  that  phlegm  or  staidness,  which 
it  is  a  compliment  to  disturb.  "  Great  men,"  said  Aris- 
totle, "are  always  of  a  nature  originally  melancholy." 
'T  is  the  habit  of  a  mind  which  attaches  to  abstractions 
with  a  passion  which  gives  vast  results.  They  dare  to 
displease,  they  do  not  speak  to  expectation.  They  like 
the  sayers  of  No,  better  than  the  sayers  of  Yes.  Each 
of  them  has  an  opinion  which  he  feels  it  becomes  him  to 
express  all  the  more  that  it  differs  from  yours.  They  are 
meditating  opposition.  This  gravity  is  inseparable  from 
minds  of  great  resources. 

There  is  an  English  hero  superior  to  the  French,  the 
German,  the  Italian,  or  the  Greek.  When  he  is  brought 
to  the  strife  with  fate,  he  sacrifices  a  richer  material  pos- 
session, and  on  more  purely  metaphysical  grounds.  He 
is  there  with  his  own  consent,  face  to  face  with  fortune, 
which  he  defies.  On  deliberate  choice,  and  from  grounds 
of  character,  he  has  elected  his  part  to  live  and  die  for, 
and  dies  with  grandeur.  This  race  has  added  new  ele- 
ments to  humanity,  and  has  a  deeper  root  in  the  world. 

They  have  great  range  of  scale,  from  ferocity  to 
exquisite  refinement.  With  larger  scale,  they  have  great 
retrieving  power.  After  running  each  tendency  to  an 
extreme,  they  try  another  tack  with  equal  heat.  Moi-e 
intellectual  than  other  races,  when  they  live  with  other 
races,  they  do  not  take  their  language,  but  bestow  their 
own.  They  subsidize  other  nations,  and  are  not  sub- 
sidized. They  proselyte,  and  are  not  proselyted.  They 


CHARACTER.  107 

assimilate  other  races  to  themselves,  and  are  not  assim- 
ilated. The  English  did  not  calculate  the  conquest  of 
the  Indies.  It  fell  to  their  character.  So  they  admin- 
ister in  different  parts  of  the  world,  the  codes  of  every 
empire  and  race  :  in  Canada,  old  French  law ;  in  the 
Mauritius,  the  Code  Napoleon  ;  in  the  West  Indies,  the 
edicts  of  the  Spanish  Cortes ;  in  the  East  Indies,  the  Laws 
of  Menu ;  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  of  the  Scandinavian  Thing ; 
at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  of  the  Old  Netherlands ;  and 
in  the  Ionian  Islands,  the  Pandects  of  Justinian. 

They  are  very  conscious  of  their  advantageous  position 
in  history.  England  is  the  lawgiver,  the  patron,  the 
instructor,  the  ally.  Compare  the  tone  of  the  French 
and  of  the  English  press  :  the  first  querulous,  captious, 
sensitive,  about  English  opinion;  the  English  press  is 
never  timorous  about  French  opinion,  but  arrogant  and 
contemptuous. 

They  are  testy  and  headstrong  through  an  excess  of 
will  and  bias ;  churlish  as  men  sometimes  please  to  be 
who  do  not  forget  a  debt,  who  ask  no  favors,  and  who 
will  do  what  they  like  with  their  own.  With  education 
and  intercourse  these  asperities  wear  off,  and  leave  the 
good-will  pure.  If  anatomy  is  reformed  according  to 
national  tendencies,  I  suppose,  the  spleen  will  hereafter 
be  found  in  the  Englishman,  not  found  in  the  American, 
and  differencing  the  one  from  the  other.  I  anticipate 
another  anatomical  discovery,  that  this  organ  will  be 
found  to  be  cortical  and  caducous,  that  they  are  superfi- 
cially morose,  but  at  last  tender-hearted,  herein  differ- 
ing from  Rome  and  the  Latin  nations.  Nothing  savage, 
nothing  mean  resides  in  the  English  heart.  They  are 


108  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

subject  to  panics  of  credulity  and  of  rage,  but  the  tem- 
per of  the  nation,  however  disturbed,  settles  itself  soon 
and  easily,  as,  in  this  temperate  zone,  the  sky  after  what- 
ever storms  clears  again,  and  serenity  is  its  normal  con- 
dition. 

A  saving  stupidity  masks  and  protects  their  perception 
as  the  curtain  of  the  eagle's  eye.  Our  swifter  Amer- 
icans, when  they  first  deal  with  English,  pronounce  them 
stupid  ;  but,  later,  do  them  justice  as  people  who  wear 
well,  or  hide  their  strength.  To  understand  the  power 
of  performance  that  is  in  their  finest  wits,  in  the  patient 
Newton,  or  in  the  versatile  transcendent  poets,  or  in  the 
Dugdales,  Gibbons,  Hallams,  Eldons,  and  Peels,  one 
should  see  how  English  day-laborers  hold  out.  High 
and  low,  they  are  of  an  unctuous  texture.  There  is  an 
adipocere  in  their  constitution,  as  if  they  had  oil  also  for 
their  mental  wheels,  and  could  perform  vast  amounts  of 
work  without  damaging  themselves. 

Even  the  scale  of  expense  on  which  people  live,  and 
to  which  scholars  and  professional  men  conform,  proves 
the  tension  of  their  muscle,  when  vast  numbers  are 
fouiid  who  can  each  lift  this  enormous  load.  I  might 
even  add,  their  daily  feasts  argue  a  savage  vigor  of 
body. 

No  nation  was  ever  so  rich  in  able  men :  "  Gentle- 
men," as  Charles  I.  said  of  Straiford,  "  whose  abilities 
might  make  a  prince  rather  afraid  than  ashamed  in  the 
greatest  affairs  of  state  "  :  men  of  such  temper,  that, 
like  Baron  Vere,  "  had  one  seen  him  returning  from  a 
victory,  he  would  by  his  silence  have  suspected  that  he 
had  lost  the  day  ;  and,  had  he  beheld  him  in  a  retreat, 


CHARACTER.  109 

he  would  have  collected  him  a  conqueror  by  the  cheer- 
fulness of  his  spirit."  * 

The  following  passage  from  the  Heimskringla  might 
almost  stand  as  a  portrait  of  the  modern  Englishman : 
"  Haldor  was  very  stout  and  strong,  and  remarkably 
handsome  in  appearances.  King  Harold  gave  him  this 
testimony,  that  he,  among  all  his  men,  cared  least  about 
doubtful  circumstances,  whether  they  betokened  danger 
or  pleasure;  for,  whatever  turned  up,  he  was  never  in 
higher  nor  in  lower  spirits,  never  slept  less  nor  more  on 
account  of  them,  nor  ate  nor  drank  but  according  to  his 
custom.  Haldor  was  not  a  man  of  many  words,  but 
short  in  conversation,  told  his  opinion  bluntly,  and  was 
obstinate  and  hard ;  and  this  could  not  please  the  king, 
who  had  many  clever  people  about  him,  zealous  in  his 
service.  Haldor  remained  a  short  time  with  the  king, 
and  then  came  to  Iceland,  where  he  took  up  his  abode  in 
Hiardaholt,  and  dwelt  in  that  farm  to  a  very  advanced 
age."  f 

The  national  temper,  in  the  civil  history,  is  not  flashy 
or  whiffling.  The  slow,  deep,  English  mass  smoulders 
with  fire,  which  at  last  sets  all  its  borders  in  flame.  The 
wrath  of  London  is  not  French  wrath,  but  has  a  long 
memory,  and,  in  its  hottest  heat,  a  register  and  rule. 

Half  their  strength  they  put  not  forth.  They  are 
capable  of  a  sublime  resolution,  and  if  hereafter  the  war 
of  races,  often  predicted,  and  making  itself  a  war  of 
opinions  also  (a  question  of  despotism  and  liberty  com- 
ing from  Eastern  Europe),  should  menace  the  English 

*  Fuller.     Worthies  of  England. 

f  Heimskringla,  Laing's  translation,  Vol.  III.  p.  37. 


110  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

civilization,  these  sea-kings  may  take  once  again  to  their 
floating  castles,  and  find  a  new  home  and  a  second  millen- 
nium of  power  in  their  colonies. 

The  stability  of  England  is  the  security  of  the  modern 
world.  If  the  English  race  were  as  mutable  as  the 
French,  what  reliance  ?  But  the  English  stand  for  lib- 
erty. The  conservative,  money-loving,  lord-loving  Eng- 
lish are  yet  liberty-loving ;  and  so  freedom  is  safe :  for 
they  have  more  personal  force  than  other  people.  The 
nation  always  resist  the  immoral  action  of  their  govern- 
ment. They  think  humanely  on  the  affairs  of  France,  of 
Turkey,  of  Poland,  of  Hungary,  of  Schleswig  Holstein, 
though  overborne  by  the  statecraft  of  the  rulers  at  last. 

Does  the  early  history  of  each  tribe  show  the  perma- 
nent bias,  which,  though  not  less  potent,  is  masked,  as 
the  tribe  spreads  its  activity  into  colonies,  commerce, 
codes,  arts,  letters  ?  The  early  history  shows  it,  as  the 
musician  plays  the  air  which  he  proceeds  to  conceal  in 
a  tempest  of  variations.  In  Alfred,  in  the  Northmen, 
one  may  read  the  genius  of  the  English  society,  namely, 
that  private  life  is  the  place  of  honor.  Glory,  a  career, 
and  ambition,  words  familiar  to  the  longitude  of  Paris, 
are  seldom  heard  in  English  speech.  Nelson  wrote  from 
their  hearts  his  homely  telegraph,  "England  expects 
every  man  to  do  his  duty." 

For  actual  service,  for  the  dignity  of  a  profession,  or 
to  appease  diseased  or  inflamed  talent,  the  army  and  navy 
may  be  entered  (the  worst  boys  doing  well  in  the  navy) ; 
and  the  civil  service,  in  departments  where  serious 
ofiicial  work  is  done ;  and  they  hold  in  esteem  the  bar- 
rister engaged  in  the  severer  studies  of  the  law.  But 


COCKAYNE.  Ill 

the  calm,  sound,  and  most  British  Briton  shrinks  from 
public  life,  as  charlatanism,  and  respects  an  economy 
founded  on  agriculture,  coal-mines,  manufactures,  or 
trade,  which  secures  an  independence  through  the  crea- 
tion of  real  values. 

They  wish  neither  to  command  or  obey,  but  to  be 
kings  in  their  own  houses.  They  are  intellectual  and 
deeply  enjoy  literature  ;  they  like  well  to  have  the  world 
served  up  to  them  in  books,  maps,  models,  and  every 
mode  of  exact  information,  and,  though  not  creators  in 
the  art,  they  value  its  refinement.  They  are  ready  for 
leisure,  can  direct  and  fill  their  own  day,  nor  need  so 
much  as  others  the  constraint  of  a  necessity.  But  the 
history  of  the  nation  discloses,  at  every  turn,  this  origi- 
nal predilection  for  private  independence,  and,  however 
this  inclination  may  have  been  disturbed  by  the  bribes 
with  which  their  vast  colonial  power  has  warped  men  out 
of  orbit,  the  inclination  endures,  and  forms  and  reforms 
the  laws,  letters,  manners,  and  occupations.  They  choose 
that  welfare  which  is  compatible  with  the  commonwealth, 
knowing  that  such  alone  is  stable;  as  wise  merchants 
prefer  investments  in  three  per  cents. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

COCKAYNE. 

THE  English  are  a  nation  of  humorists.  Individual 
right  is  pushed  to  the  uttermost  bound  compatible  with 
public  order.  Property  is  so  perfect,  that  it  seems  the 


112  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

craft  of  that  race,  and  not  to  exist  elsewhere.  The  king 
cannot  step  on  an  acre  which  the  peasant  refuses  to  sell. 
A  testator  endows  a  dog  or  a  rookery,  and  Europe  can- 
not interfere  with  his  absurdity.  Every  individual  has 
his  particular  way  of  living,  which  he  pushes  to  folly,  and 
the  decided  sympathy  of  his  compatriots  is  engaged  to 
back  up  Mr.  Crump's  whim  by  statutes,  and  chancellors, 
and  horse-guards.  There  is  no  freak  so  ridiculous  but 
some  Englishman  has  attempted  to  immortalize  by  money 
and  law.  British  citizenship  is  as  omnipotent  as  Roman 
was.  Mr.  Cockayne  is  very  sensible  of  this.  The  pursy 
man  means  by  freedom  the  right  to  do  as  he  pleases, 
and  does  wrong  in  order  to  feel  his  freedom,  and  makes 
a  conscience  of  persisting  in  it. 

He  is  intensely  patriotic,  for  his  country  is  so  small. 
His  confidence  in  the  power  and  performance  of  his 
nation  makes  him  provokingly  incurious  about  other  na- 
tions. He  dislikes  foreigners.  Swedenborg,  who  lived 
much  in  England,  notes  "  the  similitude  of  minds  among 
the  English,  in  consequence  of  which  they  contract  famil- 
iarity with  friends  who  are  of  that  nation,  and  seldom 
with  others  ;  and  they  regard  foreigners,  as  one  looking 
through  a  telescope  from  the  top  of  a  palace  regards 
those  who  dwell  or  wander  about  out  of  the  city."  A 
much  older  traveller,  the  Venetian  who  wrote  the  "  Rela- 
tion of  England,"  *  in  1500,  says :  "  The  English  are 
great  lovers  of  themselves,  and  of  everything  belonging 
to  them.  They  think  that  there  are  no  other  men  than 
themselves,  and  no  other  world  but  England  ;  and,  when- 
ever they  see  a  handsome  foreigner,  they  say  that  he 

*  Printed  by  the  Camdcn  Society. 


COCKAYNE.  113 

looks  like  an  Englishman,  and  it  is  a  great  pity  lie  should 
not  be  an  Englishman ;  and  whenever  they  partake  of 
any  delicacy  with  a  foreigner,  they  ask  him  whether  such 
a  thing  is  made  in  his  country."  When  he  adds  epithets 
of  praise,  his  climax  is  "  so  English  " ;  and  when  he 
wishes  to  pay.  you  the  highest  compliment,  he  says,  I 
should  not  know  you  from  an  Englishman.  France  is, 
by  its  natural  contrast,  a  kind  of  blackboard  on  which 
English  character  draws  its  own  traits  in  chalk.  This 
arrogance  habitually  exhibits  itself  in  allusions  to  the 
French.  I  suppose  that  all  men  of  English  blood  iu 
America,  Europe,  or  Asia  have  a  secret  feeling  of  joy 
that  they  are  not  French  natives.  Mr.  Coleridge  is  said 
to  have  given  public  thanks  to  God,  at  the  close  of  a 
lecture,  that  he  had  defended  him  from  being  able  to 
utter  a  single  sentence  in  the  French  language.  1  have 
found  that  Englishmen  have  such  a  good  opinion  of 
England,  that  the  ordinary  phrases,  in  all  good  society, 
of  postponing  or  disparaging  one's  own  things  in  talking 
with  a  stranger,  are  seriously  mistaken  by  them  for  an 
insuppressible  homage  to  the  merits  of  their  nation ;  and 
the  New-Yorker  or  Pennsylvania!!  who  modestly  laments 
the  disadvantage  of  a  new  country,  log-huts,  and  savages, 
is  surprised  by  the  instant  and  unfeigned  commiseration 
of  the  whole  company,  who  plainly  account  all  the  world 
out  of  England  a  heap  of  rubbish. 

The  same  insular  limitation  pinches  his  foreign  poli- 
tics. He  sticks  to  his  traditions  and  usages,  and,  so 
help  him  God !  he  will  force  his  island  by-laws  down  the 
throat  of  great  countries,  like  India,  China,  Canada, 
Australia,  and  not  only  so,  but  impose  Wapping  on  the 

H 


114  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

Congress  of  Vienna,  and  trample  down  all  nationalities 
with  his  taxed  boots.  Lord  Chatham  goes  for  liberty, 
and  no  taxation  without  representation ;  —  for  that  is 
British  law ;  but  not  a  hobnail  shall  they  dare  make  in 
America,  but  buy  their  nails  in  England,  —  for  that  also 
is  British  law ;  and  the  fact  that  British  commerce  was 
to  be  re-created  by  the  independence  of  America,  took 
them  all  by  surprise. 

In  short,  I  am  afraid  that  English  nature  is  so  rank 
and  aggressive  as  to  be  a  little  incompatible  with  every 
other.  The  world  is  not  wide  enough  for  two. 

But,  beyond  this  nationality,  it  must  be  admitted,  the 
island  offers  a  daily  worship  to  the  old  Norse  god  Brage, 
celebrated  among  our  Scandinavian  forefathers,  for  his 
eloquence  and  majestic  air.  The  English  have  a  steady 
courage,  that  fits  them  for  great  attempts  and  endurance : 
they  have  also  a  petty  courage,  through  which  every  man 
delights  in  showing  himself  for  what  he  is,  and  in  doing 
what  he  can  ;  so  that,  in  all  companies,  eacli  of  them  has 
too  good  an  opinion  of  himself  to  imitate  anybody.  He 
hides  no  defect  of  his  form,  features,  dress,  connection, 
or  birthplace,  for  he  thinks  every  circumstance  belonging 
to  him  comes  recommended  to  you.  If  one  of  them 
have  a  bald,  or  a  red,  or  a  green  head,  or  bow  legs,  or  a 
scar,  or  mark,  or  a  paunch,  or  a  squeaking  or  a  raven 
voice,  he  has  persuaded  himself  that  there  is  something 
modish  and  becoming  in  it,  and  that  it  sits  well  on  him. 

But  nature  makes  nothing  in  vain,  and  this  little  su- 
perfluity of  self-regard  in  the  English  brain  is  one  of 
the  secrets  of  their  power  and  history.  It  sets  every 
man  on  being  and  doing  what  lie  really  is  and  can.  It 


COCKAYNE.  115 

takes  away  a  dodging,  skulking,  secondary  air,  and  en- 
courages a  frank  and  manly  bearing,  so  that  each  man 
makes  the  most  of  himself,  and  loses  no  opportunity  for 
want  of  pushing.  A  man's  personal  defects  will  com- 
monly have  with  the  rest  of  the  world  precisely  that 
importance  which  they  have  to  himself.  If  he  makes 
light  of  them,  so  will  other  men.  We  all  find  in  these  a 
convenient  meter  of  character,  since  a  little  man  would 
be  ruined  by  the  vexation.  I  remember  a  shrewd  poli- 
tician, in  one  of  our  Western  cities,  told  me  "  that  he  had 
known  several  successful  statesmen  made  by  their  foi- 
ble." And  another,  an  ex-governor  of  Illinois,  said  to 
me  :  "  If  a  man  knew  anything,  he  would  sit  in  a  corner 
and  be  modest ;  but  he  is  such  an  ignorant  peacock,  that 
he  goes  bustling  up  and  down,  and  hits  on  extraordinary 
discoveries." 

There  is  also  this  benefit  in  brag,  that  the  speaker 
is  unconsciously  expressing  his  own  ideal.  Humor 
him  by  all  means,  draw  it  all  out,  and  hold  him  to 
it.  Their  culture  generally  enables  the  travelled  English 
to  avoid  any  ridiculous  extremes  of  this  self-pleasing, 
and  to  give  it  an  agreeable  air.  Then  the  natural  dis- 
position is  fostered  by  the  respect  which  they  find  enter- 
tained in  the  world  for  English  ability.  It  was  said  of 
Louis  XIV.,  that  his  gait  and  air  were  becoming  enough 
in  so  great  a  monarch,  yet  would  have  been  ridiculous  in 
another  man ;  so  the  prestige  of  the  English  name  war- 
rants a  certain  confident  bearing,  which  a  French  man  or 
Belgian  could  not  carry.  At  all  events,  they  feel  them- 
selves at  liberty  to  assume  the  most  extraordinary  tone 
on  the  subject  of  English  merits. 


116  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

An  English  lady  on  the  Rhine  hearing  a  German 
speaking  of  her  party  as  foreigners,  exclaimed,  "  No,  we 
are  not  foreigners ;  we  are  English :  it  is  you  that  are 
foreigners  "  They  tell  you  daily,  in  London,  the  story 
of  the  Frenchman  and  Englishman  who  quarrelled. 
Both  were  unwilling  to  fight,  but  their  companions  put 
them  up  to  it;  at  last,  it  was  agreed,  that  they  should 
fight  alone,  in  the  dark,  and  with  pistols :  the  candles 
were  put  out,  and  the  Englishman,  to  make  sure  not  to 
hit,  anybody,  fired  up  the  chimney,  and  brought  down  the 
Frenchman.  They  have  no  curiosity  about  foreigners, 
and  answer  any  information  you  may  volunteer,  with 
"  Oh !  Oh !  "  until  the  informant  makes  up  his  mind, 
that  they  shall  die  in  their  ignorance,  for  any  help  he 
will  offer.  There  are  really  no  limits  to  this  conceit, 
though  brighter  men  among  them  make  painful  efforts  to 
be  candid. 

The  habit  of  brag  runs  through  all  classes,  from  the 
Times  newspaper  through  politicians  and  poets,  through 
Wordsworth,  Carlyle,  Mill,  and  Sydney  Smith,  down  to 
the  boys  of  Eton.  In  the  gravest  treatise  on  political 
economy,  in  a  philosophical  essay,  in  books  of  science,  one 
is  surprised  by  the  most  innocent  exhibition  of  unflinch- 
ing nationality.  In  a  tract  on  Corn,  a  most  amiable  and 
accomplished  gentleman  writes  thus  :  "  Though  Britain, 
according  to  Bishop  Berkeley's  idea,  were  surrounded  by 
a  wall  of  brass  ten  thousand  cubits  in  height,  still,  she 
would  as  far  excel  the  rest  of  the  globe  in  riches,  as  she 
now  does,  both  in  this  secondary  quality,  and  in  the 
more  important  ones  of  freedom,  virtue,  and  science."  * 

*  William  Spence. 


COCKAYNE.  117 

The  English  dislike  the  American  structure  of  society, 
whilst  yet  trade,  mills,  public  education,  and  chartism 
are  doing  what  they  can  to  create  in  England  the  same 
social  condition.  America  is  the  paradise  of  the  econ- 
omists ;  is  the  favorable  exception  invariably  quoted  to 
the  rules  of  ruin ;  but  when  he  speaks  directly  of  the 
Americans,  the  islander  forgets  his  philosophy,  and  re- 
members his  disparaging  anecdotes. 

But  this  childish  patriotism  costs  something,  like  all 
narrowness.  The  English  sway  of  their  colonies  has  no 
root  of  kindness.  They  govern  by  their  arts  and  ability ; 
they  are  more  just  than  kind ;  and,  whenever  an  abate- 
ment of  their  power  is  felt,  they  have  not  conciliated  the 
affection  on  which  to  rely. 

Coarse  local  distinctions,  as  those  of  nation,  province, 
or  town,  are  useful  in  the  absence  of  real  ones ;  but  we 
must  not  insist  on  these  accidental  lines.  Individual 
traits  are  always  triumphing  over  national  ones.  There 
is  no  fence  in  metaphysics  discriminating  Greek,  or  Eng- 
lish, or  Spanish  science.  jEsop  and  Montaigne,  Cervan- 
tes and  Suadi,  are  men  of  the  world ;  and  .to  wave  our 
own  flag  at  the  dinner-table  or  in  the  University,  is  to 
carry  the  boisterous  dulness  of  a  fire-club  into  a  polite 
circle.  Nature  and  destiny  are  always  on  the  watch  for 
our  follies.  Nature  trips  us  up  when  we  strut ;  and 
there  are  curious  examples  in  history  on  this  very  point 
of  national  pride. 

George  of  Cappadocia,  born  at  Epiphania  in  Cilicia, 
was  a  low  parasite,  who  got  a  lucrative  contract  to 
supply  the  army  with  bacon.  A  rogue  and  informer,  he 
got  rich,  and  was  forced  to  run  from  justice.  He  saved 


118  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

his  money,  embraced  Arianism,  collected  a  library,  and 
got  promoted  by  a  faction  to  the  episcopal  throne  of 
Alexandria.  When  Julian  came,  A.  n.  361,  George  was 
dragged  to  prison;  the  prison  was  burst  open  by  the 
mob,  and  George  was  lynched,  as  he  deserved.  And  this 
precious  knave  became,  in  good  time,  Saint  George  of 
England,  patron  of  chivalry,  emblem  of  victory  and  civil- 
ity, and  the  pride  of  the  best  blood  of  the  modern  world. 
Strange,  that  the  solid  truth-speaking  Briton  should 
derive  from  an  impostor.  Strange,  that  the  New  World 
should  have  no  better  luck,  —  that  broad  America  must 
wear  the  name  of  a  thief.  Amerigo  Vespucci,  the  pickle- 
dealer  at  Seville,  who  went  out,  in  1499,  a  subaltern 
with  Hojeda,  and  whose  highest  naval  rank  was  boat- 
swain's mate  in  an  expedition  that  never  sailed,  managed 
iu  this  lying  world  to  supplant  Columbus,  and  baptize 
half  the  earth  with  his  own  dishonest  name.  Thus  no- 
body can  throw  stones.  We  are  equally  badly  off  in  our 
founders ;  and  the  false  pickle-dealer  is  an  offset  to  the 
false  bacou-seller. 


CHAPTER  X. 

WEALTH. 

THERE  is  no  country  in  which  so  absolute  a  homage 
is  paid  to  wealth.  In  America,  there  is  a  touch  of  shame 
when  a  man  exhibits  the  evidences  of  large  property,  as 
if,  after  all,  it  needed  apology.  But  the  Englishman  has 
pure  pride  in  his  wealth,  and  esteems  it  a  final  certificate. 
4  coarse  logic  rules  throughout  all  English  souls ;  —  if 


WEALTH.  119 

you  have  merit,  can  you  not,  show  it  by  your  good 
clothes,  and  coach,  and  horses  ?  How  can  a  man  be  a 
gentleman  without  a  pipe  of  wine?  Haydon  says, 
"There  is  a  fierce  resolution  to  make  every  man  live 
according  to  the  means  he  possesses."  There  is  a  mix- 
ture of  religion  in  it.  They  are  under  the  Jewish  law, 
and  read  with  sonorous  emphasis  that  their  days  shall  be 
long  in  the  land,  they  shall  have  sons  and  daughters, 
flocks  and  herds,  wine  and  oil.  In  exact  proportion  is 
the  reproach  of  poverty.  They  do  not  wish  to  be  repre- 
sented except  by  opulent  men.  An  Englishman  who  has 
lost  his  fortune  is  said  to  have  died  of  a  broken  heart. 
The  last  term  of  insult  is,  "a  beggar."  Nelson  said, 
"  The  want  of  fortune  is  a  crime  which  I  can  never  get 
over."  Sydney  Smith  said,  "  Poverty  is  infamous  in 
England."  And  one  of  their  recent  writers  speaks,  in 
reference  to  a  private  and  scholastic  life,  of  "  the  grave 
moral  deterioration  which  follows  an  empty  exchequer." 
You  shall  find  this  sentiment,  if  not  so  frankly  put,  yet 
deeply  implied,  in  the  novels  and  romances  of  the  present 
century,  and  not  only  in  these,  but  in  biography,  and  in 
the  votes  of  public  assemblies,  in  the  tone  of  the  preach- 
ing, and  in  the  table-talk. 

I  was  lately  turning  over  Wood's  Athence  Oxonienses, 
and  looking  naturally  for  another  standurd  in  a  chronicle 
of  the  scholars  of  Oxford  for  two  hundred  years.  But 
I  found  the  two  disgraces  in  that,  as  in  most  English 
books,  are,  first,  disloyalty  to  Church  and  Stale,  and, 
second,  to  be  born  poor,  or  to  come  to  poverty.  A  natu- 
ral fruit  of  England  is  the  brutal  political  economy. 
Malthus  finds  no  cover  laid  at  nature's  table  for  the 


120  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

laborer's  son.  In  1809,  the  majority  in  Parliament 
expressed  itself  by  the  language  of  Mr.  Fuller  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  "  If  you  do  not  like  the  country, 
damn  yon,  you  can  leave  it."  When  Sir  S.  Romilly 
proposed  his  bill  forbidding  parish  officers  to  bind  chil- 
dren apprentices  at  a  greater  distance  than  forty  miles 
from  their  home,  Peel  opposed,  and  Mr.  Wortley  said, 
"  though,  in  the  higher  ranks,  to  cultivate  family  affec- 
tions was  a  good  thing,  't  was  not  so  among  the  lower 
orders.  Better  take  them  away  from  those  who  might 
deprave  them.  And  it  was  highly  injurious  to  trade  to 
stop  binding  to  manufacturers,  as  it  must  raise  the  price 
of  labor,  and  of  manufactured  goods." 

The  respect  for  truth  of  facts  in  England  is  equalled 
only  by  the  respect  for  wealth.  It  is  at  once  the  pride  of 
art  of  the  Saxon,  as  he  is  a  wealth-maker,  and  his  passion 
for  independence.  The  Englishman  believes  that  every 
man  must  take  care  of  himself,  and  has  himself  to  thank, 
if  he  do  not  mend  his  condition.  To  pay  their  debts  is 
their  national  point  of  honor.  From  the  Exchequer  and 
the  East  India  House  to  the  huckster's  shop,  everything 
prospers,  because  it  is  solvent.  The  British  armies  are 
solvent,  and  pay  for  what  they  take.  The  British  empire 
is  solvent ;  for,  in  spite  of  the  huge  national  debt,  the 
valuation  mounts.  During  the  war  from  1789  to  1815, 
whilst  they  complained  that  they  were  taxed  within  an 
inch  of  their  lives,  and,  by  dint  of  enormous  taxes,  were 
subsidizing  all  the  continent  against  France,  the  English 
were  growing  rich  every  year  faster  than  any  ^eople  ever 
grew  before.  It  is  their  maxim,  that  the  weight  of  taxes 
must  be  calculated,  not  by  what  is  taken,  but  by  what  is 


WKALTH.  121 

left.  Solvency  is  in  the  ideas  and  mechanism  of  an  Eng- 
lishman. The  Crystal  Palace  is  not  considered  honest 
until  it  pays  ;  no  matter  how  much  convenience,  beauty, 
or  eclat,  it  must  be  self-supporting.  They  are  contented 
with  slower  steamers,  as  long  as  they  know  that  swifter 
boats  lose  money.  They  proceed  logically  by  the  double 
method  of  labor  and  thrift.  Every  household  exhibits 
an  exact  economy,  and  nothing  of  that  uncalculated 
headlong  expenditure  which  families  use  in  America.  If 
they  cannot  pay,  they  do  not  buy ;  for  they  have  no  pre- 
sumption of  better  fortunes  next  year,  as  our  people 
have ;  and  they  say  without  shame,  I  cannot  afford  it. 
Gentlemen  do  not  hesitate  to  ride  in  the  second-class 
cars,  or  in  the  second  cabin.  An  economist,  or  a  man 
who  can  proportion  his  means  and  his  ambition,  or  bring 
the  year  round  with  expenditure  which  expresses  his 
character,  without  embarrassing  one  day  of  his  future,  is 
already  a  master  of  life,  and  a  freeman.  Lord  Burleigh 
writes  to  his  son,  "  that  one  ought  never  to  aevote  more 
than  two  thirds  of  his  income  to  the  ordinary  expenses  of 
life,  since  the  extraordinary  will  be  certain  to  absorb  the 
other  third." 

The  ambition  to  create  value  evokes  every  kind  of 
ability,  government  becomes  a  manufacturing  corpora- 
tion, and  every  house  a  mill.  The  headlong  bias  to  util- 
ity will  let  no  talent  lie  in  a  napkin,  —  if  possible,  will 
teach  spiders  to  weave  silk  stockings.  An  Englishman, 
while  he  eats  and  drinks  no  more,  or  not  much  more  than 
another  nfen,  labors  three  times  as  many  hours  in  the 
course  of  a  year,  as  an  other  European ;  or,  his  life  as 
a  workman  is  three  lives.  He  works  fast.  Everything 
6 


122  ENGLISH    TKAITS. 

in  England  is  at  a  quick  pace.  They  have  reinforced 
their  own  productivity,  by  the  creation  of  that  marvel- 
lous machinery  which  differences  this  age  from  any  other 
age. 

'T  is  a  curious  chapter  in  modern  history,  the  growth 
of  the  machine-shop.  Six  hundred  years  ago,  Roger 
Bacon  explained  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  the  con- 
sequent necessity  of  the  reform  of  the  calendar;  meas- 
ured the  length  of  the  year,  invented  gunpowder;  and 
announced  (as  if  looking  from  his  lofty  cell,  over  five  cen- 
turies, into  ours)  "  that  machines  can  be  constructed  to 
drive  ships  more  rapidly  than  a  whole  galley  of  rowers 
could  do;  nor  would  they  need  anything  but  a  pilot 
to  steer  them.  Carriages  also  might  be  constructed  to 
move  with  an  incredible  speed,  without  the  aid  of  any 
animal.  Finally,  it  would  not  be  impossible  to  make 
machines,  which,  by  means  of  a  suit  of  wings,  should  fly 
in  the  air  in  the  manner  of  birds."  But  the  secret  slept 
with  Bacon.  The  six  hundred  years  have  not  yet  ful- 
filled his  words.  Two  centuries  ago,  the  sawing  of  tim- 
ber was  done  by  hand ;  the  carriage-wheels  ran  on 
wooden  axles;  the  land  was  tilled  by  wooden  ploughs. 
And  it  was  to  little  purpose  that  they  had  pit-coal  or  that 
looms  were  improved,  unless  Watt  and  Stephensou  had 
taught  them  to  work  force-pumps  and  power-looms  by 
steam.  The  great  strides  were  all  taken  within  the 
last  hundred  years.  The  life  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in 
his  day  the  model  Englishman,  very  properly  has,  for 
a  frontispiece,  a  drawing  of  the  spinning-jenny,  which 
wove  the  web  of  his  fortunes.  Hargreaves  invented  the 
spinning-jenny,  and  died  in  a  workhouse.  Arkwright 


WEALTH.  123 

improved  the  invention ;  and  the  machine  dispensed  with 
the  work  of  ninety-nine  men :  that  is,  one  spinner  could 
do  as  much  work  as  one  hundred  had  done  before.  The 
loom  was  improved  further.  But  the  men  would  some- 
times strike  for  wages,  and  combine  against  the  masters, 
and,  about  1829-30,  much  fear  was  felt,  lest  the  trade 
would  be  drawn  away  by  these  interruptions,  and  the 
emigration  of  the  spinners,  to  Belgium  and  the  United 
States.  Iron  and  steel  are  very  obedient.  Whether  it 
were  not  possible  to  make  a  spinner  that  would  not 
rebel,  nor  mutter,  nor  scowl,  nor  strike  for  wages,  nor 
emigrate?  At  the  solicitation  of  the  masters,  after  a 
mob  and  riot  at  Staley  Bridge,  Mr.  Roberts  of  Manches- 
ter undertook  to  create  this  peaceful  fellow,  instead  of 
the  quarrelsome  fellow  God  had  made.  After  a  few 
trials,  he  succeeded,  and,  in  1830,  procured  a  patent  for 
his  self-acting  mule  ;  a  creation,  the  delight  of  mill-own- 
ers, and  "  destined,"  they  said,  "  to  restore  order  among 
the  industrious  classes " ;  a  machine  requiring  only  a 
child's  hand  to  piece  the  broken  yarns.  As  Arkwright 
had  destroyed  domestic  spinning,  so  Roberts  destroyed 
the  factory  spinner.  The  power  of  machinery  in  Great 
Britain,  in  mills,  has  been  computed  to  be  equal  to 
600,000,000  men,  one  man  being  able  by  the  aid  of  steam 
to  do  the  work  which  required  two  hundred  and  fifty  men 
to  accomplish  fifty  years  ago.  The  production  has  been 
commensurate.  England  already  had  this  laborious  race, 
rich  soil,  water,  wood,  coal,  iron,  and  favorable  climate. 
Eight  hundred  years  ago,  commerce  had  made  it  rich,  and 
it  was  recorded,  "  England  is  the  richest  of  all  the  north- 
ern nations."  The  Norman  historians  recite,  that  "in 


124  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

1067,  William  carried  with  liim  into  Normandy,  from 
England,  more  gold  and  silver  than  had  ever  before  been 
seen  in  Gaul.  But  when,  to  this  labor  and  trade  and 
these  native  resources  was  added  this  goblin  of  steam, 
with  his  myriad  arms,  never  tired,  working  night  and 
day  everlastingly,  the  amassing  of  property  has  ruu  out 
of  all  figures.  It  makes  the  motor  of  the  last  ninety 
years.  The  steam-pipe  has  added  to  her  population  and 
wealth  the  equivalent  of  four  or  five  Englands.  Forty 
thousand  ships  are  entered  in  Lloyd's  lists.  The  yield 
of  wheat  has  gone  on  from  2,000,000  quarters  in  the 
time  of  the  Stuarts,  to  13,000,000  in  1854.  A  thousand 
million  pounds  sterling  are  said  to  compose  the  float- 
ing money  of  commerce.  In  1848,  Lord  John  Russell 
stated  that  the  people  of  this  country  had  laid  out 
£300,000,000  of  capital  in  railways,  in  the  last  four 
years.  But  a  better  measure  than  these  sounding  fig- 
ures is  the  estimate,  that  there  is  wealth  enough  in 
England  to  support  the  entire  population  in  idleness  for 
one  year. 

The  wise,  versatile,  all-giving  machinery  makes  chisels, 
roads,  locomotives,  telegraphs.  Whitworth  divides  a  bar 
to  a  millionth  of  an  inch.  Steam  twines  huge  cannon 
into  wreaths,  as  easily  as  it  braids  straw,  and  vies  with 
the  volcanic  forces  which  twisted  the  strata.  It  can 
clothe  shingle  mountains  with  ship-oaks,  make  sword- 
blades  that  will  cut  gun-barrels  in  two.  In  Egypt,  it 
can  plant  forests,  and  bring  rain  after  three  thousand 
years.  Already  it  is  ruddering  the  balloon,  and  the 
next  war  will  be  fought  in  the  air.  But  another  ma- 
chine more  potent  in  England  than  steam  is  the  Bank. 


WEALTH.  125 

It  votes  an  issue  of  bills,  population  is  stimulated,  and 
cities  rise ;  it  refuses  loans,  and  emigration  empties  the 
country  ;  trade  sinks  ;  revolutions  break  out ;  kings  are 
dethroned.  By  these  new  agents  our  social  system  is 
moulded.  By  dint  of  steam  and  of  money,  war  and  com- 
merce are  changed.  Nations  have  lost  their  old  omnip- 
otence ;  the  patriotic  tie  does  not  hold.  Nations  are 
getting  obsolete,  we  go  and  live  where  we  will.  Steam 
has  enabled  men  to  choose  what  law  they  will  live  under. 
Money  makes  place  for  them.  The  telegraph  is  a  limp- 
band  that  will  hold  the  Fenris-wolf  of  war.  For  now, 
that  a  telegraph  line  runs  through  France  and  Eu- 
rope, from  London,  every  message  it  transmits  makes 
stronger  by  one  thread  the  band  which  war  will  have 
to  cut. 

The  introduction  of  these  elements  gives  new  resources 
to  existing  proprietors.  A  sporting  duke  may  fancy  that 
the  state  depends  on  the  House  of  Lords,  but  the  en- 
gineer sees,  that  every  stroke  of  the  steam-piston  gives 
value  to  the  duke's  land,  fills  it  with  tenants ;  doubles, 
quadruples,  centuples  the  duke's  capital,  and  creates  new 
measures  and  new  necessities  for  the  culture  of  his  chil- 
dren. Of  course,  it  draws  the  nobility  into  the  compe- 
tition as  stockholders  in  the  mine,  the  canal,  the  railway, 
in  the  application  of  steam  to  agriculture,  and  sometimes 
into  trade.  But  it  also  introduces  large  classes  into  the 
same  competition ;  the  old  energy  of  the  Norse  race  arms 
itself  with  these  magnificent  powers  ;  new  men  prove  an 
overmatcli  for  the  land-owner,  and  the  mill  buys  out  the 
castle.  Scandinavian  Thor,  who  once  forged  his  bolts  in 
icy  Hecla,  and  built  galleys  by  lonely  fiords,  in  England, 


126  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

has  advanced  with  the  times,  has  shorn,  his  beard,  enters 
Parliament,  sits  down  at  a  desk  in  the  India  House,  and 
lends  Miollnir  to  Birmingham  for  a  steam-hammer. 

The  creation  of  wealth  in  England  in  the  last  ninety 
years  is  a  main  fact  in  modern  history.  The  wealth  of 
London  determines  prices  all  over  the  globe.  All  things 
precious,  or  useful,  or  amusing,  or  intoxicating,  are 
sucked  into  this  commerce  and  floated  to  London.  Some 
English  private  fortunes  reach,  and  some  exceed,  a  mil- 
lion of  dollars  a  year.  A  hundred  thousand  palaces 
adorn  the  island.  All  that  can  feed  the  senses  and  pas- 
sions, all  that  can  succor  the  talent,  or  arm  the  hands  of 
the  intelligent  middle  class  who  never  spare  in  what  they 
buy  for  their  own  consumption ;  all  that  can  aid  sci- 
ence, gratify  taste,  or  soothe  comfort,  is  in  open  market. 
Whatever  is  excellent  and  beautiful  in  civil,  rural,  or  ec- 
clesiastic architecture ;  in  fountain,  garden,  or  grounds ; 
the  English  noble  crosses  sea  and  land  to  see  and  to  copy 
at  home.  The  taste  and  science  of  thirty  peaceful  gener- 
ations ;  the  gardens  which  Evelyn  planted ;  the  temples 
and  pleasure-houses  which  Inigo  Jones  and  Christopher 
Wren  built ;  the  wood  that  Gibbous  carved ;  the  taste 
of  foreign  and  domestic  artists,  Slicnstone,  Pope,  Brown, 
Loudou,  Paxton,  are  in  the  vast  auction,  and  the  heredi- 
tary principle  heaps  on  the  owner  of  to-day  the  benefit 
of  ages  of  owners.  The  present  possessors  are  to  the 
full  as  absolute  as  any  of  their  fathers,  in  choosing  and 
procuring  what  they  like.  This  comfort  and  splendor, 
the  breadth  of  lake  and  mountain,  tillage,  pasture,  and 
park,  sumptuous  castle  and  modern  villa,  —  all  consist 
with  perfect  order.  They  have  no  revolutions ;  no  horse- 


WEALTH.  127 

guards  dictating  to  the  crown ;  no  Parisian  poissardes 
and  barricades ;  no  mob  ;  but  drowsy  habitude,  daily 
dress-dinners,  wine,  and  ale,  and  beer,  and  gin,  and 
sleep. 

With  this  power  of  creation,  and  this  passion  for 
independence,  property  has  reached  an  ideal  perfection. 
It  is  felt  and  treated  as  the  national  life-blood.  The 
laws  are  framed  to  give  property  the  securest  possib'e 
basis,  and  the  provisions  to  lock  and  transmit  it  have 
exercised  the  cunningest  heads  in  a  profession  which 
never  admits  a  fool.  The  rights  of  property  nothing  but 
felony  and  treason  can  override.  The  house  is  a  castle 
which  the  king  cannot  enter.  The  Bank  is  a  strong-box 
to  which  the  king  has  no  key.  Whatever  surly  sweet- 
ness possession  can  give,  is  tasted  in  England  to  the 
dregs.  Vested  rights  are  awful  things,  and  absolute 
possession  gives  the  smallest  freeholder  identity  of  inter- 
est with  the  duke.  High  stone  fences  and  padlocked 
garden  gates  announce  the  absolute  will  of  the  owner  to 
be  alone.  Every  whim  of  exaggerated  egotism  is  put 
into  stone  and  iron,  into  silver  and  gold,  with  costly 
deliberation  and  detail. 

An  Englishman  hears  that  the  Queen  Dowager  wishes 
to  establish  some  claim  to  put  her  park  paling  a  rod  for- 
ward into  his  grounds,  so  as  to  get  a  coachway,  and  save 
her  a  mile  to  the  avenue.  Instantly  he  transforms  his 
paling  into  stone  masonry,  solid  as  the  walls  of  Cuma, 
and  all  Europe  cannot  prevail  on  him  to  sell  or  com- 
pound for  an  inch  of  the  land.  They  delight  in  a  freak 
as  the  proof  of  their  sovereign  freedom.  Sir  Edward 
Boynton,  at  Spic  Park,  at  Cadenham,  on  a  precipice  of 


128  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

incomparable  prospect,  built  a  house  like  a  long  barn, 
•which  had  not  a  window  on  the  prospect  side.  Straw- 
berry Hill  of  Horace  Walpole,  Foul  hill  Abbey  of  Mr. 
Beckford,  were  freaks ;  and  Newstead  Abbey  became 
one  in  the  hands  of  Lord  Byron. 

But  the  proudest  result  of  this  creation  lias  been  the 
great  and  refined  forces  it  has  put  at  the  disposal  of  the 
private  citizen.  In  the  social  world,  an  Englishman  to- 
day has  the  best  lot.  He  is  a  king  in  a  plain  coat.  He 
goes  with  the  most  powerful  protection,  keeps  the  best 
company,  is  armed  by  the  best  education,  is  seconded  by 
•wealth  ;  and  his  English  name  and  accidents  are  like 
a  flourish  of  trumpets  announcing  him.  This,  with  his 
quiet  style  of  manners,  gives  him  the  power  of  a  sov- 
ereign, without  the  inconveniences  which  belong  to  that 
rank.  I  much  prefer  the  condition  of  an  English  gen- 
tleman of  the  better  class,  to  that  of  any  potentate  in 
Europe, — whether  for  travel,  or  for  opportunity  of 
society,  or  for  access  to  means  of  science  or  study,  or 
for  mere  comfort  and  easy  healthy  relation  to  people  at 
home. 

Such,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  wealth  of  England,  a 
mighty  mass,  and  made  good  in  whatever  details  we  care 
to  explore.  The  cause  and  spring  of  it  is  the  wealth 
of  temperament  in  the  people.  The  wonder  of  Britain 
is  this  plenteous  nature.  Her  worthies  are  ever  sur- 
rounded by  as  good  men  as  themselves ;  each  is  a 
captain  a  hundred  strong,  and  that  wealth  of  men  is 
represented  again  in  the  faculty  of  each  individual, — 
that  he  has  waste  strength,  power  to  spare.  The  Eng- 
lish are  so  rich,  and  seem  to  have  established  a  taproot 


WEALTH.  129 

in  the  bowels  of  the  planet,  because  they  are  constitu- 
tionally fertile  and  creative. 

But  a  man  must  keep  an  eye  on  his  servants,  if  he 
would  not  have  them  rule  him.  Man  is  a  shrewd  inventor, 
and  is  ever  taking  the  hint  of  a  new  machine  from  his 
own  structure,  adapting  some  secret  of  his  own  anatomy 
in  iron,  wood,  and  leather,  to  some  required  function  iu 
the  work  of  the  world.  But  it  is  found  that  the  machine 
unmans  the  user.  What  he  gains  in  making  cloth,  he 
loses  in  general  power.  There  should  be  temperance 
in  making  cloth,  as  well  as  in  eating.  A  man  should 
not  be  a  silkworm ;  nor  a  nation  a  tent  of  caterpillars. 
The  robust  rural  Saxon  degenerates  in  the  mills  to  the 
Leicester  stockiuger,  to  the  imbecile  Manchester  spinner, 
—  far  on  the  way  to  be  spiders  and  needles.  The  inces- 
sant repetition  of  the  same  hand-work  dwarfs  the  man, 
robs  him  of  his  strength,  wit,  and  versatility,  to  make  a 
pin-polisher,  a  buckle-maker,  or  any  other  specialty ;  and 
presently,  in  a  change  of  industry,  whole  towns  are 
sacrificed  like  ant-hills,  when  the  fashion  of  shoestrings 
supersedes  buckles,  when  cotton  takes  the  place  of  linen, 
or  railways  of  turnpikes,  or  when  commons  are  enclosed 
by  landlords.  Then  society  is  admonished  of  the  mis- 
chief of  the  division  of  labor,  and  that  the  best  political 
economy  is  care  and  culture  of  men ;  for,  in  these  crises, 
all  are  ruined  except  such  as  are  proper  individuals, 
capable  of  thought,  and  of  new  choice  and  the  applica- 
tion of  their  talent  to  new  labor.  Then  again  come  ia 
new  calamities.  England  is  aghast  at  the  disclosure  of  her 
fraud  in  the  adulteration  of  food,  of  drugs,  and  of  almost 
every  fabric  in  her  mills  and  shops ;  finding  that  milk  will 


130  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

not  nourish,  nor  sugar  sweeten,  nor  bread  satisfy,  nor 
pepper  bite  the  tongue,  nor  glue  stick.  In  true  England 
all  is  false  and  forged.  This  too  is  the  reaction  of  ma- 
chinery, but  of  the  larger  machinery  of  commerce.  'T  is 
not,  I  suppose,  want  of  probity,  so  much  as  the  tyranny 
of  trade,  which  necessitates  a  perpetual  competition  of 
underselling,  and  that  again  a  perpetual  deterioration  of 
the  fabric. 

The  machinery  has  proved,  like  the  balloon,  unmanage- 
able, and  flies  away  with  the  aeronaut.  Steam  from  the 
first  hissed  and  screamed  to  warn  him ;  it  was  dreadful 
with  its  explosion,  and  crushed  the  engineer.  The  ma- 
chinist has  wrought  and  watched,  engineers  and  firemen 
without  number  have  been  sacrificed  in  learning  to  tame 
and  guide  the  monster.  But  harder  still  it  has  proved 
to  resist  and  rule  the  dragon  Money,  with  his  paper 
wings.  Chancellors  and  Boards  of  Trade,  Pitt,  Peel, 
and  Robinson,  and  their  Parliaments,  and  their  whole 
generation,  adopted  false  principles,  and  went  to  their 
graves  in  the  belief  that  they  were  enriching  the  country 
which  they  were  impoverishing.  They  congratulated 
each  other  on  ruinous  expedients.  It  is  rare  to  find 
a  merchant  who  knows  why  a  crisis  occurs  in  trade,  why 
prices  rise  or  fall,  or  who  knows  the  mischief  of  paper- 
money.  In  the  culmination  of  national  prosperity,  in 
the  annexation  of  countries ;  building  of  ships,  depots, 
towns ;  in  the  influx  of  tons  of  gold  and  silver ;  amid  the 
chuckle  of  chancellors  and  financiers,  it  was  found  that 
bread  rose  to  famine  prices,  that  the  yeoman  was  forced 
to  sell  his  cow  and  pig,  his  tools,  and  his  acre  of  land ; 
and  the  dreadful  barometer  of  the  poor-rates  was  touch- 


WEALTH.  131 

ing  the  point  of  ruin.  The  poor-rate  was  sucking  in  the 
solvent  classes,  and  forcing  an  exodus  of  farmers  and 
mechanics.  What  befalls  from  the  violence  of  financial 
crises,  befalls  daily  in  the  violence  of  artificial  legislation. 

Such  a  wealth  has  England  earned,  ever  new,  bounte- 
ous, and  augmenting.  But  the  question  recurs,  does  she 
take  the  step  beyond,  namely,  to  the  wise  use,  in.  view 
of  the  supreme  wealth  of  nations?  We  estimate  the 
wisdom  of  nations  by  seeing  what  they  did  with  their 
surplus  capital.  And,  in  view  of  these  injuries,  some 
compensation  has  been  attempted  in  England.  A  part 
of  the  money  earned  returns  to  the  brain  to  buy  schools, 
libraries,  bishops,  astronomers,  chemists,  and  artists  with; 
and  a  part  to  repair  the  wrongs  of  this  intemperate  weav- 
ing, by  hospitals,  savings-banks,  Mechanics'  Institutes, 
public  grounds,  and  other  charities  and  amenities.  But 
the  antidotes  are  frightfully  inadequate,  and  the  evil 
requires  a  deeper  cure,  which  time  and  a  simpler  social 
organization  must  supply.  At  present,  she  does  not  rule 
her  wealth.  She  is  simply  a  good  England,  but  no 
divinity,  or  wise  and  instructed  soul.  She  too  is  in  the 
stream  of  fate,  one  victim  more  in  a  common  catastrophe. 

But  being  in  the  fault,  she  has  the  misfortune  of 
greatness  to  be  held  as  the  chief  offender.  England  must 
be  held  responsible  for  the  despotism  of  expense.  Her 
prosperity,  the  splendor  which  so  much  manhood  and  tal- 
ent and  perseverance  has  thrown  upon  vulgar  aims,  is  the 
very  argument  of  materialism.  Her  success  strengthens 
the  hands  of  base  wealth.  Who  can  propose  to  youth 
poverty  and  wisdom,  when  mean  gain  has  arrived  at  the 


132  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

conquest  of  letters  and  arts ;  when  English  success  has 
grown  out  of  the  very  renunciation  of  principles,  and  the 
dedication  to  outsides.  A  civility  of  trifles,  of  money 
and  expense,  an  erudition  of  sensation  takes  place,  and 
the  putting  as  many  impediments  as  we  can,  between  the 
man  and  his  objects.  Hardly  the  bravest  among  them 
have  the  manliness  to  resist  it  successfully.  Hence,  it 
has  come,  that  not  the  aims  of  a  manly  life,  but  the 
means  of  meeting  a  certain  ponderous  expense,  is  that 
which  is  to  be  considered  by  a  youth  in  England,  emer- 
ging from  his  minority.  A  large  family  is  reckoned  a 
misfortune.  And  it  is  a  consolation  in  the  death  of  the 
young,  that  a  source  of  expense  is  closed. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

ARISTOCRACY. 

THE  feudal  character  of  the  English  state,  now  that  it 
is  getting  obsolete,  glares  a  little,  in  contrast  with  the 
democratic  tendencies.  The  inequality  of  power  and 
property  shocks  republican  nerves.  Palaces,  halls,  villas, 
walled  parks,  all  over  England,  rival  the  splendor  of 
royal  seats.  Many  of  the  halls,  like  Haddon,  or  Kedles- 
ton,  are  beautiful  desolations.  The  proprietor  never  saw 
them,  or  never  lived  in  them.  Primogeniture  built  these 
sumptuous  piles,  and,  I  suppose,  it  is  the  sentiment  of 
every  traveller,  as  it  was  mine,  'T  was  well  to  come  ere 
these  were  gone.  Primogeniture  is  a  cardinal  rule  of 
English  property  and  institutions.  Laws,  customs,  man- 
ners, the  very  persons  and  faces,.  ;  {firm  it. 


ARISTOCRACY.  138 

The  frame  of  society  is  aristocratic,  the  taste  of  the 
people  is  loyal.  The  estates,  names,  and  manners  of 
the  nobles  flatter  the  fancy  of  the  people,  and  conciliate 
the  necessary  support.  In  spite  of  broken  faith,  stolen 
charters,  and  the  devastation  of  society  by  the  profligacy 
of  the  court,  we  take  sides  as  we  read  for  the  loyal 
England  and  King  Charles's  "return  to  his  right"  with 
his  Cavaliers,  —  knowing  what  a  heartless  trifler  he  is, 
and  what  a  crew  of  God-forsaken  robbers  they  are.  The 
people  of  England  knew  as  much.  But  the  fair  idea  of 
a  settled  government  connecting  itself  with  heraldic 
names,  with  the  written  and  oral  history  of  Europe,  and, 
at  last,  with  the  Hebrew  religion,  and  the  oldest  tradi- 
tions of  the  world,  was  too  pleasing  a  vision  to  be  shat- 
tered by  a  few  offensive  realities,  and  the  politics  of 
shoemakers  and  costermongers.  The  hopes  of  the  com- 
moners take  the  same  direction  with  the  interest  of  the 
patricians.  Every  man  who  becomes  rich  buys  land,  and 
does  what  he  can  to  fortify  the  nobility,  into  which  he 
hopes  to  rise.  The  Anglican  clergy  are  identified  with 
the  aristocracy.  Time  and  law  have  made  the  joining 
and  moulding  perfect  in  every  part.  The  Cathedrals, 
the  Universities,  the  national  music,  the  popular  ro- 
mances, conspire  to  uphold  the  heraldry,  which  the 
current  politics  of  the  day  are  sapping.  The  taste  of 
the  people  is  conservative.  They  are  proud  of  the  cas- 
tles, and  of  the  language  and  symbol  of  chivalry.  Even 
the  word  "  lord  "  is  the  luckiest  style  that  is  used  in 
any  language  to  designate  a  patrician.  The  superior 
education  and  manners  of  the  nobles  recommend  them 
to  the  country. 


134  ENGLISH    TllAITS. 

The  Norwegian  pirate  got  what  he  could,  and  held  it 
for  his  eldest  son.  The  Norman  noble,  who  was  the  Nor- 
wegian pirate  baptized,  did  likewise.  There  was  this  ad- 
vantage of  Western  over  Oriental  nobility,  that  this  was 
recruited  from  below.  English  history  is  aristocracy 
with  the  doors  open.  Who  has  courage  and  faculty,  let 
him  come  in.  Of  course,  the  terms  of  admission  to  this 
club  are  hard  and  high.  The  selfishness  of  the  nobles 
comes  in  aid  of  the  interest  of  the  nation  to  require  signal 
merit.  Piracy  and  war  gave  place  to  trade,  politics,  and 
letters ;  the  war-lord  to  the  law-lord ;  the  law-lord  to  the 
merchant  and  the  mill-owner ;  but  the  privilege  was  kept, 
whilst  the  means  of  obtaining  it  were  changed. 

The  foundations  of  these  families  lie  deep  in  Norwegian 
exploits  by  sea,  and  Saxon  sturdiness  on  land.  All  no- 
bility in  its  beginnings  was  somebody's  natural  superior- 
ity. The  things  these  English  have  done  were  not  done 
without  peril  of  life,  nor  without  wisdom  and  conduct ; 
and  the  first  hands,  it  may  be  presumed,  were  often  chal- 
lenged to  show  their  right  to  their  honors,  or  yield  them 
to  better  men.  "  He  that  will  be  a  head,  let  him  be  a 
bridge,"  said  the  Welsh  chief  Benegridran,  when  he  car- 
ried all  his  men  over  the  river  on  his  back.  "  He  shall 
have  the  book,"  said  the  mother  of  Alfred,  "who  can 
read  it " ;  and  Alfred  won  it  by  that  title :  tmd  I  make 
no  doubt  that  feudal  tenure  was  no  sinecure,  but  baron, 
knight,  and  tenant  often  had  their  memories  refreshed, 
in  regard  to  the  service  by  which  they  held  their  lands. 
The  De  Veres,  Bohuns,  Mowbrays,  and  Piantagenets 
were  not  addicted  to  contemplation.  The  Middle  Age 
adorned  itself  with  proofs  of  manhood  and  devotion.  Of 


ARISTOCRACY.  135 

Richard  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick,  the  Emperor  told 
Henry  V.  that  no  Christian  king  had  such  another  knight 
for  wisdom,  nurture,  and  manhood,  and  caused  him  to  be 
named,  "  Father  of  curtesie."  "  Our  success  in  France," 
says  the  historian,  "  lived  and  died  with  him."  * 

The  war-lord  earned  his  honors,  and  no  donation  of 
land  was  large,  as  long  as  it  brought  the  duty  of  protect- 
ing it,  hour  by  hour,  against  a  terrible  enemy.  In  France 
and  in  England,  the  nobles  were,  down  to  a  late  day,  born 
and  bred  to  war ;  and  the  duel,  which  in  peace  still  held 
them  to  the  risks  of  war,  diminished  the  envy  that,  in 
trading  and  studious  nations,  would  else  have  pried  into 
their  title.  They  were  looked  on  as  men  who  played  high 
for  a  great  stake. 

Great  estates  are  not  sinecures,  if  they  are  to  be  kept 
great.  A  creative  economy  is  the  fuel  of  magnificence. 
In  the  same  line  of  Warwick,  the  successor  next  but  one 
to  Beauchamp  was  the  stout  earl  of  Henry  VI.  and 
Edward  IV.  Few  esteemed  themselves  in  the  mode, 
whose  heads  were  not  adorned  with  the  black  ragged 
staff,  his  badge.  At  his  house  in  London,  six  oxen  were 
daily  eaten  at  a  breakfast ;  and  every  tavern  was  full  of 
his  meat ;  and  who  had  any  acquaintance  in  his  family, 
should  have  as  much  boiled  and  roast  as  he  could  carry 
on  a  long  dagger. 

The  new  age  brings  new  qualities  into  request,  the 
virtues  of  pirates  gave  way  to  those  of  planters,  mer- 
chants, senators,  and  scholars.  Comity,  social  talent, 
and  fine  manners,  no  doubt,  have  had  their  part  also.  I 
have  met  somewhere  with  a  historiette,  which,  whether 

*  Fuller's  Worthies,  II.  p  472. 


136  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

more  or  less  true  in  its  particulars,  carries  a  general  truth. 
"How  came  the  Duke  of  Bedford  by  his  great  landed 
estates  ?  His  ancestor  having  travelled  on  the  continent, 
a  lively,  pleasant  man,  became  the  companion  of  a  foreign 
prince  wrecked  on  the  Dorsetshire  coast,  where  Mr. 
Russell  lived.  The  prince  recommended  him  to  Henry 
VIII.,  who,  liking  his  company,  gave  him  a  large  share 
of  the  plundered  church  lands." 

The  pretence  is  that  the  noble  is  of  unbroken  descent 
from  the  Norman,  and  has  never  worked  for  eight  hun- 
dred years.  But  the  fact  is  otherwise.  Where  is  Bohun  ? 
where  is  De  Vere?  The  lawyer,  the  farmer,  the  silk- 
mercer,  lies  perdu  under  the  coronet,  and  winks  to  the 
antiquary  to  say  nothing;  especially  skilful  lawyers, 
nobody's  sons,  who  did  some  piece  of  work  at  a  nice 
moment  for  government,  and  were  rewarded  with  ermine. 

The  national  tastes  of  the  English  do  not  lead  them 
to  the  life  of  the  courtier,  but  to  secure  the  comfort 
and  independence  of  their  homes.  The  aristocracy  are 
marked  by  their  predilection  for  country-life.  They  are 
called  the  county-families.  They  have  often  no  residence 
in  London,  and  only  go  thither  for  a  short  time,  during 
the  season,  to  see  the  opera ;  but  they  concentrate  the  love 
and  labor  of  many  generations  on  the  building,  planting, 
and  decoration  of  their  homesteads.  Some  of  them  are 
too  old  and  too  proud  to  wear  titles,  or,  as  Sheridan  suid 
of  Coke,  "disdain  to  hide  their  head  in  a  coronet  "  ;  and 
some  curious  examples  are  cited  to  show  the  stability  of 
English  families.  Their  proverb  is,  that,  flffv  miles  from 
London,  a  family  will  last  a  hundred  years ;  at  a  hundred 
miles,  two  hundred  years ;  and  so  on ;  but  I  doubt  that 


ARISTOCRACY.  137 

steam,  the  enemy  of  time,  as  well  as  of  space,  will  dis- 
turb these  ancient  rules.  Sir  Henry  Wottou  says  of  the 
first  Duke  of  Buckingham  :  "  He  was  born  at  Brookeby 
in  Leicestershire,  where  his  ancestors  had  chiefly  contin- 
ued about  the  space  of  four  hundred  years,  rather  with- 
out obscurity,  than  with  any  great  lustre."  *  Wraxall 
says,  that,  in  1781,  Lord  Surrey,  afterwards  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  told  him,  that  when  the  year  1783  should  arrive, 
he  meant  to  give  a  grand  festival  to  all  the  descendants 
of  the  body  of  Jockey  of  Norfolk,  to  mark  the  day  when 
the  dukedom  should  have  remained  three  hundred  years 
in  their  house,  since  its  creation  by  Richard  III.  Pepys 
tells  us,  iu  writing  of  an  Earl  Oxford,  in  1666,  that  the 
honor  had  now  remained  in  that  name  and  blood  six  hun- 
dred years. 

This  long  descent  of  families  and  this  cleaving  through 
ages  to  the  same  spot  of  ground  captivates  the  imagina- 
tion. It  has  too  a  connection  with  the  names  of  the 
towns  and  districts  of  the  country. 

The  names  are  excellent,  —  an  atmosphere  of  legen- 
dary melody  spread  over  the  laud.  Older  than  all  epics 
and  histories,  which  clothe  a  nation,  this  undershirt  sits 
close  to  the  body.  What  history  too,  and  what  stores  of 
primitive  and  savage  observation,  it  infolds !  Cambridge 
is  the  bridge  of  the  Cam  ;  Sheffield,  the  field  of  the  river 
Sheaf;  Leicester,  the  castra  or  camp  of  the  Lear  or  Leir 
(now  Soar) ;  Rochdale,  of  the  Roch ;  Exeter  or  Excester, 
the  castra  of  the  Ex ;  Exmouth,  Dartmouth,  Sidinouth, 
Teignmouth,  the  mouths  of  the  Ex,  Dart,  Sid,  and  Teign 
Rivers.  Waltham  is  strong  town;  Radcliffe  is  red  cliff; 

*  Reliquize  Wottoniante,  p.  208. 


138  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

and  so  on ;  —  a  sincerity  and  use  in  naming  very  striking 
to  an  American,  whose  country  is  whitewashed  all  over 
by  unmeaning  names,  the  cast-off  clothes  of  the  country 
from  which  its  emigrants  came ;  or,  named  at  a  pinch 
from  a  psalm-tune.  But  the  English  are  those  "barba- 
rians "  of  Jamblichus,  who  "  are  stable  in  their  manners, 
and  firmly  continue  to  employ  the  same  words,  which  also 
are  dear  to  the  gods." 

'T  is  an  old  sneer,  that  the  Irish  peerage  drew  their 
names  from  playbooks.  The  English  lords  do  not  call 
their  lands  after  their  own  names,  but  call  themselves 
after  their  lands ;  as  if  the  man  represented  the  country 
that  bred  him ;  and  they  rightly  wear  the  token  of  the 
glebe  that  gave  them  birth;  suggesting  that  the  tie  is  not 
cut,  but  that  there  in  London,  —  the  crags  of  Argyle,  the 
kail  of  Cornwall,  the  downs  of  Devon,  the  iron  of  Wales, 
the  clays  of  Stafford,  are  neither  forgetting  nor  forgotten, 
but  know  the  man  who  was  born  by  them,  and  who,  like 
the  long  line  of  his  fathers,  has  carried  that  crag,  that 
shore,  dale,  fen,  or  woodland  in  his  blood  and  manners. 
It  has,  too,  the  advantage  of  suggesting  responsibleness. 
A  susceptible  man  could  not  wear  a  name  which  repre- 
sented in  a  strict  sense  a  city  or  a  county  of  England, 
without  hearing  in  it  a  challenge  to  duty  and  honor. 

The  predilection  of  the  patricians  for  residence  in  the 
country,  combined  with  the  degree  of  liberty  possessed 
by  the  peasant,  makes  the  safety  of  the  English  hall. 
Mirabeau  wrote  prophetically  from  England,  in  1784 : 
"  If  revolution  break  out  in  France,  I  tremble  for  the 
aristocracy :  their  chateaux  will  be  reduced  to  ashes,  and 
their  blood  spilt  in  torrents.  The  English  tenant  would 


ARISTOCRACY.  139 

defend  his  lord  to  the  last  extremity."  The  English  go 
to  their  estates  for  grandeur.  The  French  live  at  court, 
and  exile  themselves  to  their  estates  for  economy.  As 
they  do  not  mean  to  live  with  their  tenants,  they  do  not 
conciliate  them,  but  wring  from  them  the  last  sous. 
Evelyn  writes  from  Blois,  in  1644 :  "  The  wolves  are 
here  iu  such  numbers,  that  they  often  come  and  take 
children  out  of  the  streets ;  yet  will  not  the  Duke,  who  is 
sovereign  here,  permit  them  to  be  destroyed." 

In  evidence  of  the  wealth  amassed  by  ancient  families, 
the  traveller  is  shown  the  palaces  in  Piccadilly,  Burling- 
ton House,  Devonshire  House,  Lansdowne  House  in 
Berkshire  Square,  and,  lower  down  in  the  city,  a  few 
noble  houses  which  still  withstand  in  all  their  amplitude 
the  encroachment  of  streets.  The  Duke  of  Bedford  in- 
cludes or  included  a  mile  square  in  the  heart  of  London, 
where  the  British  Museum,  once  Montague  House,  now 
stands,  and  the  land  occupied  by  Woburn  Square,  Bed- 
ford Square,  Russell  Square.  The  Marquis  of  Westmin- 
ster built  within  a  few  years  the  series  of  squares  called 
Belgravia.  Stafford  House  is  the  noblest  palace  in  Lon- 
don. Northumberland  House  holds  its  place  by  Charing 
Cross.  Chesterfield  House  remains  in  Audley  Street. 
Sion  House  and  Holland  House  are  in  the  suburbs.  But 
most  of  the  historical  houses  are  masked  or  lost  in  the 
modern  uses  to  which  trade  or  charity  has  converted 
them.  A  multitude  of  town  palaces  contain  inestimable 
galleries  of  art. 

In  the  country,  the  size  of  private  estates  is  more 
impressive.  From  Barnard  Castle  I  rode  on  the  high- 
way twenty-three  miles  from  High  Force,  a  fall  of  the 


140  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

Tees,  towards  Darlington,  past  Raby  Castle,  through 
the  estate  of  the  Duke  of  Cleveland.  The  Marquis  of 
Breadalbane  rides  out  of  his  house  a  hundred  miles  in 
a  straight  line  to  the  sea,  on  his  own  property.  The 
Duke  of  Sutherland  owns  the  county  of  Sutherland, 
stretching  across  Scotland  from  sea  to  sea.  The  Duke 
of  Devonshire,  besides  his  other  estates,  owns  96,000 
acres  in  the  county  of  Derby.  The  Duke  of  Richmond 
has  40,000  acres  at  Goodwood,  and  300,000  at  Gordon 
Castle.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk's  park  in  Sussex  is  fifteen 
miles  in  circuit.  An  agriculturist  bought  lately  the 
island  of  Lewes,  in  Hebrides,  containing  500,000  acres. 
The  possessions  of  the  Earl  of  Lonsdale  gave  him  eight 
seats  in  Parliament.  This  is  the  Heptarchy  again ;  and 
before  the  Reform  of  1832,  one  hundred  and  fifty-four 
persons  sent  three  hundred  and  seven  members  to  Par- 
liament. The  borough-mongers  governed  England. 

These  large  domains  are  growing  larger.  The  great 
estates  are  absorbing  the  small  freeholds.  In  1786,  the 
soil  of  England  was  owned  by  250,000  corporations  and 
proprietors;  and,  in  1822,  by  32,000.  These  broad 
estates  find  room  in  this  narrow  island.  All  over  Eng- 
land, scattered  at  short  intervals  among  ship-yards,  mills, 
mines,  and  forges,  are  the  paradises  of  the  nobles,  where 
the  livelong  repose  and  refinement  are  heightened  by  the 
contrast  with  the  roar  of  industry  and  necessity,  out  of 
which  you  have  stepped  aside. 

I  was  surprised  to  observe  the  very  small  attendance 
usually  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Out  of  573  peers,  on 
ordinary  days,  only  twenty  or  thirty.  Where  are  they  ? 


ARISTOCRACY.  141 

I  asked.  "  At  home  on  their  estates,  devoured  by  ennui, 
or  in  the  Alps,  or  up  the  Rhine,  in  the  Harz  Mountains, 
or  in  Egypt,  or  in  India,  on  the  Ghauts."  But,  with 
such  interests  at  stake,  how  can  these  men  afford  to 
neglect  them  ?  "  0,"  replied  my  friend,  "  why  should 
they  work  for  themselves,  when  every  man  in  England 
works  for  them,  and  will  suffer  before  they  come  to 
harm  ?  "  The  hardest  radical  instantly  uncovers,  and 
changes  his  tone  to  a  lord.  It  was  remarked  on  the 
10th  April,  1843  (the  day  of  the  Chartist  demonstration), 
that  the  upper  classes  were,  for  the  first  time,  actively 
interesting  themselves  in  their  own  defence,  and  men  of 
rank  were  sworn  special  constables,  with  the  rest.  "  Be- 
sides, why  need  they  sit  out  the  debate  ?  Has  not  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  at  this  moment,  their  proxies,  — the 
proxies  of  fifty  peers  in  his  pocket,  to  vote  for  them,  if 
there  be  an  emergency  ?  " 

It  is  however  true,  that  the  existence  of  the  House  of 
Peers  as  a  branch  of  the  government  entitles  them  to  fill 
half  the  Cabinet;  and  their  weight  of  property  and  station 
gives  them  a  virtual  nomination  of  the  other  half;  whilst 
they  have  their  share  in  the  subordinate  offices,  as  a  school 
of  training.  This  monopoly  of  political  power  has  given 
them  their  intellectual  and  social  eminence  in  Europe. 
A  few  law  lords  and  a  few  political  lords  take  the  brunt 
of  public  business.  In  the  army,  the  nobility  fill  a  large 
part  of  the  high  commissions,  and  give  to  these  a  tone  of 
expense  and  splendor,  and  also  of  exclusiveness.  They 
have  borne  their  full  share  of  duty  and  danger  in  this 
service ;  and  there  are  few  noble  families  which  have  not 
paid  in  some  of  their  members,  the  debt  of  life  or  limb, 


142  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

in  the  sacrifices  of  the  Russian  war.  For  the  rest,  the 
nobility  have  the  lead  in  matters  of  state,  and  of  expense ; 
in  questions  of  taste,  in  social  usages,  in  convivial  and 
domestic  hospitalities.  In  general,  all  that  is  required  of 
them  is  to  sit  securely,  to  preside  at  public  meetings,  to 
countenance  charities,  and  to  give  the  example  of  that 
decorum  so  dear  to  the  British  heart. 

If  one  asks,  in  the  critical  spirit  of  the  day,  what  ser- 
vice this  class  have  rendered  ?  —  uses  appear,  or  they 
would  have  perished  long  ago.  Some  of  these  are  easily 
enumerated,  others  more  subtle  make  a  part  of  uncon- 
scious history.  Their  institution  is  one  step  in  the  prog- 
ress of  society.  For  a  race  yields  a  nobility  in  some  form, 
however  we  name  the  lords,  as  surely  as  it  yields  women. 

The  English  nobles  are  high-spirited,  active,  educated 
men,  born  to  wealth  and  power,  who  have  run  through 
every  country,  and  kept  in  every  country  the  best  com- 
pany, have  seen  every  secret  of  art  and  nature,  and,  when 
men  of  any  ability  or  ambition,  have  been  consulted  in 
the  conduct  of  every  important  action.  You  cannot  wield 
great  agencies  without  lending  yourself  to  them,  and 
when  it  happens  that  the  spirit  of  the  earl  meets  his 
rank  and  duties,  we  have  the  best  examples  of  behavior. 
Power  of  any  kind  readily  appears  in  the  manners ;  and 
beneficent  power,  le  talent  de  Lien  faire,  gives  a  majesty 
which  cannot  be  concealed  or  resisted. 

These  people  seem  to  gain  as  much  as  they  lose  by 
their  position.  They  survey  society,  as  from  the  top  of 
St.  Paul's,  and  if  they  never  hear  plain  truth  from  men, 
they  see  the  best  of  everything,  in  every  kind,  and  they 
see  things  so  grouped  and  amassed  as  to  infer  easily  the 


ARISTOCRACY.  143 

sum  and  genius,  instead  of  tedious  particularities.  Their 
good  behavior  deserves  all  its  fame,  and  they  have  that 
simplicity,  and  that  air  of  repose,  which  are  the  finest 
ornament  of  greatness. 

The  upper  classes  have  only  birth,  say  the  people  here, 
and  not  thoughts.  Yes,  but  they  have  manners,  and  't  is 
wonderful,  how  much  talent  runs  into  manners :  —  no- 
where and  never  so  much  as  in  England.  They  have  the 
sense  of  superiority,  the  absence  of  all  the  ambitious 
effort  which  disgusts  in  the  aspiring  classes,  a  pure  tone 
of  thought  and  feeling,  and  the  power  to  command, 
among  their  other  luxuries,  the  presence  of  the  most 
accomplished  men  in  their  festive  meetings. 

Loyalty  is  in  the  English  a  sub-religion.  They  wear 
the  laws  as  ornaments,  and  walk  by  their  faith  in  their 
painted  May-Fair,  as  if  among  the  forms  of  gods.  The 
economist  of  1855  who  asks,  of  what  use  are  the  lords? 
may  learn  of  Franklin  to  ask,  of  what  use  is  a  baby? 
They  have  been  a  social  church  proper  to  inspire  senti- 
ments mutually  honoring  the  lover  and  the  loved.  Po- 
liteness is  the  ritual  of  society,  as  prayers  are  of  the 
church ;  a  school  of  manners,  and  a  gentle  blessing  to 
the  age  in  which  it  grew.  'T  is  a  romance  adorning 
English  life  with  a  larger  horizon;  a  midway  heaven, 
fulfilling  to  their  sense  their  fairy  tales  and  poetry.  This, 
just  as  far  as  the  breeding  of  the  nobleman,  really  made 
him  brave,  handsome,  accomplished,  and  great-hearted. 

On  general  grounds,  whatever  tends  to  form  manners, 
or  to  finish  men,  has  a  great  value.  Every  one  who  has 
tasted  the  delight  of  friendship,  will  respect  every  social 
guard  which  our  manners  can  establish,  tending  to  secure 


144  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

from  the  intrusion  of  frivolous  and  distasteful  people. 
The  jealousy  of  every  class  to  guard  itself,  is  a  testimony 
to  the  reality  they  have  found  in  life.  When  a  man  once 
knows  that  he  has  done  justice  to  himself,  let  him  dis- 
miss all  terrors  of  aristocracy  as  superstitions,  so  far  as 
be  is  concerned.  He  who  keeps  the  door  of  a  mine, 
whether  of  cobalt,  or  mercury,  or  nickel,  or  plumbago, 
securely  knows  that  the  world  cannot  do  without  him. 
Everybody  who  is  real  is  open  and  ready  for  that  which 
is  also  real. 

Besides,  these  are  they  who  make  England  that  strong- 
box and  museum  it  is ;  who  gather  and  protect  works  of 
art,  dragged  from  amidst  burning  cities  and  revolution- 
ary countries,  and  brought  hither  out  of  all  the  world.  I 
look  with  respect  at  houses  six,  seven,  eight  hundred,  or, 
like  Warwick  Castle,  nine  hundred  years  old.  I  par- 
doned high  park  fences,  when  I  saw,  that,  besides  does 
and  pheasants,  these  have  preserved  Arundel  marbles, 
Townley  galleries,  Howard  and  Spenserian  libraries, 
Warwick  and  Portland  vases,  Saxon  manuscripts,  monas- 
tic architectures,  millennial  trees,  and  breeds  of  cattle 
elsewhere  extinct.  In  these  manors,  after  the  frenzy  of 
war  and  destruction  subsides  a  little,  the  antiquary  finds 
the  frailest  Roman  jar,  or  crumbling  Egyptian  mummy- 
case,  without  so  much  as  a  new  layer  of  dust,  keeping 
the  series  of  history  unbroken,  and  waiting  for  its  inter- 
preter, who  is  sure  to  arrive.  These  lords  are  the  treas- 
urers and  librarians  of  mankind,  engaged  by  their  pride 
and  wealth  to  this  function. 

Yet  there  were  other  works  for  British  dukes  to  do. 
George  Loudon,  Quintinye,  Evelyn,  had  taught  them  to 


ARISTOCRACY.  145 

make  gardens.  Arthur  Young,  Bakewell,  and  Mecln 
have  made  them  agricultural.  Scotland  was  a  camp 
until  the  day  of  Cullodeu.  The  Dukes  of  Athol,  Suther- 
land, Buccleugh,  and  the  Marquis  of  Breadalbane  have 
introduced  the  rape-culture,  the  sheep-farm,  wheat,  drain- 
age, the  plantation  of  forests,  the  artificial  replenishment 
of  lakes  and  ponds  with  fish,  the  renting  of  game-pre- 
servcs.  Against  the  cry  of  the  old  tenantry,  and  the 
sympathetic  cry  of  the  English  press,  they  have  rooted 
out  and  planted  anew,  and  now  six  millions  of  people  live, 
and  live  better  on  the  same  land  that  fed  three  millions. 

The  English  barons,  in  every  period,  have  been  brave 
and  great,  after  the  estimate  and  opinion  of  their  times. 
The  grand  old  halls  scattered  up  and  down  in  England 
are  dumb  vouchers  to  the  state  and  broad  hospitality  of 
their  ancient  lords.  Shakspeare's  portraits  of  good  Duke 
Humphrey,  of  Warwick,  of  Northumberland,  of  Talbot, 
were  drawn  in  strict  consonance  with  the  traditions.  A 
sketch  of  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  from  the  pen  of  Queen 
Elizabeth's  Archbishop  Parker ;  :<  Lord  Herbert  of  Cher- 
bury's  autobiography ;  the  letters  and  essays  of  Sir 
Philip  Sidney ;  the  anecdotes  preserved  by  the  antiqua- 
ries Fuller  and  Collins ;  some  glimpses  at  the  interiors  of 
noble  houses,  which  we  owe  to  Pepys  and  Evelyn ;  the 
details  which  Ben  Jonson's  masques  (performed  at  Kenil- 
worth,  Althorpe,  Belvoir,  and  other  noble  houses)  record 
or  suggest;  down  to  Aubrey's  passages  of  the  life  of 
Hobbes  in  the  house  of  the  Earl  of  Devon,  are  favorable 
pictures  of  a  romantic  style  of  manners.  Peushurst  still 
shines  for  us,  and  its  Christmas  revels,  "  where  logs  not 

*  Dibdin's  Literary  Reminiscences,  Vol.  I.  xii. 
7  j 


146  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

burn,  but  men."  At  Wilton  House,  the  "  Arcadia  "  was 
written,  amidst  conversations  with  Fulke  Greville,  Lord 
Brooke,  a  man  of  no  vulgar  mind,  as  his  own  poems  de- 
clare him.  I  must  hold  Ludlow  Castle  an  honest  house, 
for  which  Milton's  "  Comus  "  was  written,  and  the  com- 
pany nobly  bred  which  performed  it  with  knowledge  and 
sympathy.  In  the  roll  of  nobles  are  found  poets,  philos- 
ophers, chemists,  astronomers,  also  men  of  solid  virtues 
and  of  lofty  sentiments  ;  often  they  have  been  the  friends 
and  patrons  of  genius  and  learning,  and  especially  of  the 
fine  arts ;  and  at  this  moment,  almost  every  great  house 
has  its  sumptuous  picture-gallery. 

Of  course,  there  is  another  side  to  this  gorgeous  show. 
Every  victory  was  the  defeat  of  a  party  only  less  worthy. 
Castles  are  proud  things,  but  't  is  safest  to  be  outside  of 
them.  War  is  a  foul  game,  and  yet  war  is  not  the  worst 
part  of  aristocratic  history.  In  later  times,  when  the 
baron,  educated  only  for  war,  with  his  brains  paralyzed 
by  his  stomach,  found  himself  idle  at  home,  he  grew  fat 
and  wanton,  and  a  sorry  brute.  Grammont,  Pepys,  and 
Evelyn  show  the  kennels  to  which  the  king  and  court 
went  in  quest  of  pleasure.  Prostitutes  taken  from  the 
theatres  were  made  duchesses,  their  bastards  dukes  and 
earls.  "  The  young  men  sat  uppermost,  the  old  serious 
lords  were  out  of  favor."  The  discourse  that  the  king's 
companions  had  with  him  was  "  poor  and  frothy."  No 
man  who  valued  his  head  might  do  what  these  pot-com- 
panions familiarly  did  with  the  king.  In  logical  sequence 
of  these  dignified  revels,  Pepys  can  tell  the  beggarly  shifts 
to  which  the  king  was  reduced,  who  could  not  find  paper 
at  his  council  table,  and  "  no  handkcrchers  "  in  his  ward- 


ARISTOCRACY.  147 

robe,  "  and  but  three  bands  to  his  neck,"  and  the  linen- 
draper  and  the  stationer  were  out  of  pocket,  and  refusing 
to  trust  him,  and  the  baker  will  not  bring  bread  any 
longer.  Meantime,  the  English  Channel  was  swept,  and 
London  threatened  by  the  Dutch  fleet,  manned  too  by 
English  sailors,  who,  having  been  cheated  of  their  pay  for 
years  by  the  king,  enlisted  with  the  enemy. 

The  Selwyn  correspondence  in  the  reign  of  George 
III.  discloses  a  rottenness  in  the  aristocracy,  which 
threatened  to  decompose  the  state.  The  sycophancy  and 
sale  of  votes  and  honor,  for  place  and  title ;  lewdness, 
gaming,  smuggling,  bribery,  and  cheating ;  the  sneer  at 
the  childish  indiscretion  of  quarrelling  with  ten  thousand 
a  year ;  the  want  of  ideas  ;  the  splendor  of  the  titles,  and 
the  apathy  of  the  nation,  are  instructive,  and  make  the 
reader  pause  and  explore  the  firm  bounds  which  confined 
these  vices  to  a  handful  of  rich  men.  In  the  reign  of  the 
Fourth  George,  things  do  not  seem  to  have  mended,  and 
the  rotten  debauchee  let  down  from  a  window  by  an  in- 
clined plane  into  his  coach  to  take  the  air,  was  a  scandal 
to  Europe  which  the  ill  fame  of  his  queen  and  of  his 
family  did  nothing  to  retrieve. 

Under  the  present  reign,  the  perfect  decorum  of  the 
Court  is  thought  to  have  put  a  check  on  the  gross  vices 
of  the  aristocracy ;  yet  gaming,  racing,  drinking,  and  mis- 
tresses bring  them  down,  and  the  democrat  can  still  gather 
scandals,  if  he  will.  Dismal  anecdotes  abound,  verifying 
the  gossip  of  the  last  generation  of  dukes  served  by  bai- 
liffs, with  all  their  plate  in  pawn;  of  great  lords  living  by 
the  showing  of  their  houses  ;  and  of  an  old  man  wheeled 
in  his  chair  from  room  to  room,  whilst  his  chambers  are 


148  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

exhibited  to  the  visitor  for  money  :  of  ruined  dukes  and 
earls  living  in  exile  for  debt.  The  historic  names  of  the 
Buckinghams,  Beauforts,  Marlboroughs,  and  Hertfords 
have  gained  no  new  lustre,  and  now  and  then  darker 
scandals  break  out,  ominous  as  the  new  chapters  added 
under  the  Orleans  dynasty  to  the  "  Causes  Celebres  "  in 
France.  Even  peers,  who  are  men  of  worth  and  public 
spirit,  are  overtaken  and  embarrassed  by  their  vast  ex- 
pense. The  respectable  Duke  of  Devonshire,  willing  to 
be  the  Mecsenas  and  Lucullus  of  his  island,  is  reported 
to  have  said  that  he  cannot  live  at  Chatsworth  but  one 
month  in  the  year.  Their  many  houses  eat  them  up. 
They  cannot  sell  them,  because  they  are  entailed.  They 
will  not  let  them,  for  pride's  sake,  but  keep  them  empty, 
aired,  and  the  grounds  mown  and  dressed,  at  a  cost  of 
four  or  five  thousand  pounds  a  year.  The  spending  is 
for  a  great  part  in  servants,  in  many  houses  exceeding  a 
hundred. 

Most  of  them  are  only  chargeable  with  idleness,  which, 
because  it  squanders  such  vast  power  of  benefit,  has  the 
mischief  of  crime.  "  They  might  be  little  Providences 
on  earth,"  said  my  friend,  "and  they  are,  for  the  most 
part,  jockeys  and  fops."  Campbell  says  :  "Acquaintance 
with  the  nobility,  I  could  never  keep  up.  It  requires  a 
life  of  idleness,  dressing,  and  attendance  on  their  parties." 
I  suppose,  too,  that  a  feeling  of  self-respect  is  driving 
cultivated  men  out  of  this  society,  as  if  the  noble  were 
slow  to  receive  the  lessons  of  the  times,  and  had  not 
learned  to  disguise  his  pride  of  place.  A  man  of  wit, 
who  is  also  one  of  the  celebrities  of  wealth  and  fashion, 
confessed  to  his  friend,  that  he  could  not  enter  their 


ARISTOCRACY.  119 

houses  without  being  made  to  feel  that  they  were  great 
lords,  and  he  a  low  plebeian.  With  the  tribe  of  artistes, 
including  the  musical  tribe,  the  patrician  morgue  keeps 
no  terms,  but  excludes  them.  When  Julia  Grisi  and 
Mario  sang  at  the  houses  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and 
other  grandees,  a  ribbon  was  stretched  between  the 
singer  and  the  company. 

When  every  noble  was  a  soldier,  they  were  carefully 
bred  to  great  personal  prowess.  The  education  of  a  sol- 
dier is  a  simpler  affair  than  that  of  an  earl  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  And  this  was  very  seriously  pursued; 
they  were  expert  in  every  species  of  equitation,  to  the 
most  dangerous  practices,  and  this  down  to  the  accession 
of  William  of  Orange.  But  graver  men  appear  to  have 
trained  their  sous  for  civil  affairs.  Elizabeth  extended 
her  thought  to  the  future ;  and  Sir  Philip  Sidney  in  his 
letter  to  his  brother,  and  Milton  and  Evelyn,  gave  plain, 
and  hearty  counsel.  Already,  too,  the  English  noble 
and  squire  were  preparing  for  the  career  of  the  country- 
gentleman,  and  his  peaceable  expense.  They  went  from 
city  to  city,  learning  receipts  to  make  perfumes,  sweet 
powders,  pomanders,  antidotes,  gathering  seeds,  gems, 
coins,  and  divers  curiosities,  preparing  for  a  private  life 
thereafter,  in  which  they  should  take  pleasure  in  these 
recreations. 

All  advantages  given  to  absolve  the  young  patrician 
from  intellectual  labor  are  of  course  mistaken.  "  In  the 
university,  noblemen  are  exempted  from  the  public  exer- 
cises for  the  degree,  etc.,  by  which  thsy  attain  a  degree 
called  honorary.  At  the  same  time  the  fees  they  must 
pay  for  matriculation,  and  on  all  other  occasions,  are 


150  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

much  higher."  *  Fuller  records  "  the  observation  of 
foreigners,  that  Englishmen,  by  making  their  children 
gentlemen,  before  they  are  men,  cause  they  are  so  seldom 
wise  men."  This  cockering  justifies  Dr.  Johnson's  bitter 
apology  for  primogeniture,  "  that  it  makes  but  one  fool 
in  a  family." 

The  revolution  in  society  has  reached  this  class.  The 
great  powers  of  industrial  art  have  no  exclusion  of  name 
or  blood.  The  tools  of  our  time,  namely,  steam,  ships, 
printing,  money,  and  popular  education,  belong  to  those 
who  can  handle  them ;  and  their  effect  has  been,  that  ad- 
vantages once  confined  to  men  of  family  are  now  open  to 
the  whole  middle  class.  The  road  that  grandeur  levels 
for  his  coach,  toil  can  travel  in  his  cart. 

This  is  more  manifest  every  day,  but  I  think  it  is  true 
throughout  English  history.  English  history,  wisely 
read,  is  the  vindication  of  the  brain  of  that  people.  Here, 
at  last,  were  climate  and  condition  friendly  to  the  work- 
ing faculty.  Who  now  will  work  and  dare,  shall  rule. 
This  is  the  charter,  or  the  chartism,  which  fogs,  and  seas, 
and  rains  proclaimed,  —  that  intellect  and  personal  force 
should  make  the  law ;  that  industry  and  administrative 
talent  should  administer;  that  work  should  wear  the 
crown.  I  know  that  not  this,  but  something  else  is  pre- 
tended. The  fiction  with  which  the  noble  and  the  by- 
stander equally  please  themselves  is,  that  the  former  is  of 
unbroken  descent  from  the  Norman,  and  so  has  never 
worked  for  eight  hundred  years.  All  the  families  are 
new,  but  the  name  is  old,  and  they  have  made  a  covenant 
yi\$\  their  memories  not  to  disturb  it.  But  the  analysis 

*  Huber,  History  of  English  Universities. 


ARISTOCRACY.  •  151 

of  the  peerage  and  gentry  shows  the  rapid  decay  and 
extinction  of  old  families,  the  continual  recruiting  of  these 
from  new  blood.  The  doors,  though  ostentatiously 
guarded,  are  really  open,  and  hence  the  power  of  the 
bribe.  All  the  barriers  to  rank  only  whet  the  thirst,  and 
enhance  the  prize.  "  Now,"  said  Nelson,  when  clearing 
for  battle,  "  a  peerage,  or  Westminster  Abbey  !  "  "I  have 
no  illusion  left,"  said  Sidney  Smith,  "  but  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury."  "  The  lawyers,"  said  Burke,  "  are  only 
birds  of  passage  in  this  House  of  Commons,"  and  then 
added,  with  a  new  figure,  "  they  have  their  best  bower 
anchor  in  the  House  of  Lords." 

Another  stride  that  has  been  taken,  appears  in  the 
perishing  of  heraldry.  Whilst  the  privileges  of  nobility 
are  passing  to  the  middle  class,  the  badge  is  discredited, 
and  the  titles  of  lordship  are  getting  musty  and  cumber- 
some. I  wonder  that  sensible  men  have  not  been  already 
impatient  of  them.  They  belong,  with  wigs,  powder,  and 
scarlet  coats,  to  an  earlier  age,  and  may  be  advanta- 
geously consigned,  with  paint  and  tattoo,  to  the  digni- 
taries of  Australia  and  Polynesia. 

A  multitude  of  English,  educated  at  the  universities, 
bred  into  their  society  with  manners,  ability,  and  the 
gifts  of  fortune,  are  every  day  confronting  the  peers  on 
a  footing  of  equality,  and  outstripping  them,  .as  often,  in 
the  race  of  honor  and  influence.  That  cultivated  class  is 
large  and  ever  enlarging.  It  is  computed  that,  with  titles 
and  without,  there  are  seventy  thousand  of  these  people 
coining  and  going  in  London,  who  make  up  what  is 
called  high  society.  They  cannot  shut  their  eyes  to  the 
fact  that  an  untitled  nobility  possess  all  the  power  with- 


152  ENGLISH     TBAITS. 

out  the  inconveniences  that  belong  to  raiik,  and  the  rich 
Englishman  goes  over  the  world  at  the  present  day, 
drawing  more  than  all  the  advantages  which  the  strong- 
est of  his  kings  could  command. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

UNIVERSITIES. 

OF  British  universities,  Cambridge  has  the  most  illus- 
trious names  on  its  list.  At  the  present  day,  too,  it  has 
the  advantage  of  Oxford,  counting  in  its  alumni  a  greater 
number  of  distinguished  scholars.  I  regret  that  I  had 
but  a  single  day  wherein  to  see  King's  College  Chapel, 
the  beautiful  lawns  and  gardens  of  the  colleges,  and  a  few 
of  its  gownsmen. 

But  I  availed  myself  of  some  repeated  invitations  to 
Oxford,  where  I  had  introductions  to  Dr.  Daubeny,  Pro- 
fessor of  Botany,  and  to  the  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity, 
as  well  as  to  a  valued  friend,  a  Fellow  of  Oriel,  and  went 
thither  on  the  last  day  of  March,  1848.  I  was  the  guest 
of  my  friend  in  Oriel,  was  housed  close  upon  that  college, 
and  I  lived  on  college  hospitalities. 

My  new^riends  showed  me  their  cloisters,  the  Bodleian 
Library,  the  Randolph  Gallery,  Merton  Hall,  and  the 
rest.  I  saw  several  faithful,  high-minded  young  men, 
some  of  them  in  the  mood  of  making  sacrifices  for  peace 
of  mind,  —  a  topic,  of  course,  on  which  I  had  no  coun- 
sel to  offer.  Their  affectionate  and  gregarious  ways  re- 
minded me  at  once  of  the  habits  of  our  Cambridge  men, 


UNIVERSITIES.  153 

though  I  imputed  to  these  English  an  advantage  in  their 
secure  and  polished  manners.  The  halls  are  rich  with 
oaken  wainscoting  and  ceiling.  The  pictures  of  the 
founders  hang  from  the  walls;  the  tables  glitter  with 
plate.  A  youth  came  forward  to  the  upper  table,  and 
pronounced  the  ancient  form  of  grace  before  meals, 
which,  I  suppose,  has  been  in  use  here  for  ages,  Bene- 
dictus  benedicat ;  benedicitur,  benedicatur. 

It  is  a  curious  proof  of  the  English  use  and  wont,  or 
of  their  good-nature,  that  these  young  men  are  locked  up 
every  night  at  nine  o'clock,  and  the  porter  at  each  hall  is 
required  to  give  the  name  of  any  belated  student  who  is 
admitted  after  that  hour.  Still  more  descriptive  is  the 
fact,  that  out  of  twelve  hundred  young  men,  comprising 
the  most  spirited  of  the  aristocracy,  a  duel  has  never 
occurred. 

Oxford  is  old,  even  in  England,  and  conservative.  Its 
foundations  date  from  Alfred,  and  even  from  Arthur,  if, 
as  is  alleged,  the  Pheryllt  of  the  Druids  had  a  seminary 
here.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,  it  is  pretended,  here 
were  thirty  thousand  students ;  and  nineteen  most  noble 
foundations  were  then  established.  Chaucer  found  it  as 
firm  as  if  it  had  always  stood ;  and  it  is  in  British  story, 
rich  with  great  names,  the  school  of  the  island,  and  the 
link  of  England  to  the  learned  of  Europe.  Hither  came 
Erasmus,  with  delight,  in  1497.  Albericus  Gentilis,  in 
1580,  was  relieved  and  maintained  by  the  university. 
Albert  Alaskie,  a  noble  Polonian,  Prince  of  Sirad,  who 
visited  England  to  admire  the  wisdom  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, was  entertained  with  stage-plays  in  the  Refectory 
of  Christ-church,  in  1533.  Isaac  Casaubon,  coming  from 


154  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

Henri  Quatre  of  France,  by  invitation  of  James  I.,  was 
admitted  to  Christ's  College,  in  July,  1613.  I  saw  the 
Ashmolean  Museum,  whither  Elias  Ashmole,  in  1682, 
sent  twelve  cart-loads  of  rarities.  Here  indeed  was  the 
Olympia  of  all  Antony  Wood's  and  Aubrey's  games  and 
heroes,  and  every  inch  of  ground  has  its  lustre.  For 
Wood's  Athena  Oxonienses,  or  calendar  of  the  writers 
of  Oxford  for  two  hundred  years,  is  a  lively  record  of 
English  manners  and  merits,  and  as  much  a  national 
monument  as  Purchas's  Pilgrims  or  Hansard's  Register. 
On  every  side,  Oxford  is  redolent  of  age  and  authority. 
Its  gates  shut  of  themselves  against  modern  innovation. 
It  is  still  governed  by  the  statutes  of  Archbishop  Laud. 
The  books  in  Mertou  Library  are  still  chained  to  the 
wall.  Here,  on  August  27,  1660,  John  Milton's  Pro 
Populo  Anglicano  Defensio  and  Iconoclastes  were  com- 
mitted to  the  flames.  I  saw  the  school-court  or  quadran- 
gle, where,  in  1683,  the  Convocation  caused  the  Leviathan 
of  Thomas  Hobbes  to  be  publicly  burnt.  I  do  not  know 
whether  this  learned  body  have  yet  heard  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  American  Independence,  or  whether  the  Ptole- 
maic astronomy  does  not  still  hold  its  ground  against  the 
novelties  of  Copernicus. 

As  many  sons,  almost  so  many  benefactors.  It  is 
usual  for  a  nobleman,  or  indeed  for  almost  every  wealthy 
student,  on  quitting  college,  to  leave  behind  him  some 
article  of  plate ;  and  gifts  of  all  values,  from  a  hall,  or  a 
fellowship,  or  a  library,  down  to  a  picture  or  a  spoon,  are 
continually  accruing,  in  the  course  of  a  century.  My 
friend  Doctor  J.  gave  me  the  following  anecdote.  In 
Sir  Thomas  Lawrence's  collection  at  London  were  the 


UNIVERSITIES.  155 

cartoons  of  Raphael  and  Michel  Angelo.  This  inestima. 
ble  prize  was  offered  to  Oxford  University  for  seven 
thousand  pounds.  The  offer  was  accepted,  and  the  com- 
mittee charged  with  the  affair  had  collected  three  thou- 
sand pounds,  when  among  other  friends  they  called  on 
Lord  Eldon.  Instead  of  a  hundred  pounds,  he  surprised 
them  by  putting  down  his  name  for  three  thousand 
pounds.  They  told  him,  they  should  now  very  easily 
raise  the  remainder.  "No,"  he  said,  "your  men  have 
probably  already  contributed  all  they  can  spare ;  I  can 
as  well  give  the  rest " :  and  he  withdrew  his  check  for 
three  thousand,  and  wrote  four  thousand  pounds.  I  saw 
the  whole  collection  in  April,  1848. 

In  the  Bodleian  Library,  Dr.  Bandinel  showed  me  the 
manuscript  Plato,  of  the  date  of  A.  D.  896,  brought  by 
Dr.  Clarke  from  Egypt;  a  manuscript  Virgil,  of  the  same 
century ;  the  first  Bible  printed  at  Mentz  (I  believe  in 
1450) ;  and  a  duplicate  of  the  same,  which  had  been  defi- 
cient in  about  twenty  leaves  at  the  end.  But,  one  day, 
being  in  Venice,  he  bought  a  room  full  of  books  and 
manuscripts  —  every  scrap  and  fragment  —  for  four 
thousand  louis  d'ors,  and  had  the  doors  locked  and 
sealed  by  the  consul.  On  proceeding,  afterwards,  to 
examine  his  purchase,  he  found  the  twenty  deficient 
pages  of  his  Mentz  Bible,  in  perfect  order ;  brought 
them  to  Oxford,  witli  the  rest  of  his  purchase,  and 
placed  them  iu  the  volume ;  but  has  too  much  awe  for 
the  Providence  that  appears  in  bibliography  also,  to  suf- 
fer the  reunited  parts  to  be  rebound.  The  oldest  build- 
ing here  is  two  hundred  years  younger  than  the  frail 
manuscript  brought  by  Dr.  Clarke  from  Egypt.  No 


156  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

candle  or  fire  is  ever  lighted  in  the  Bodleian.  Its  cata- 
logue is  the  standard  catalogue  on  the  desk  of  every 
library  in  Oxford.  In  each  several  college,  they  under- 
score in  red  ink  on  this  catalogue  the  titles  of  books 
contained  in  the  library  of  that  college, — the  theory 
being  that  the  Bodleian  has  all  books.  This  rich  library 
spent  during  the  last  year  (1847)  for  the  purchase  of 
books  £  1,668. 

The  logical  English  train  a  scholar  as  they  train  an 
engineer.  Oxford  is  a  Greek  factory,  as  Wilton  mills 
weave  carpet,  and  Sheffield  grinds  steel.  They  know  the 
use  of  a  tutor,  as  they  know  the  use  of  a  horse ;  and  they 
draw  the  greatest  amount  of  benefit  out  of  both.  The 
reading-men  are  kept  by  hard  walking,  hard  riding,  and 
measured  eating  and  drinking,  at  the  top  of  their  condi- 
tion, and  two  days  before  the  examination,  do  no  work, 
bnt  lounge,  ride,  or  run,  to  be  fresh  on  the  college 
doomsday.  Seven  years'  residence  is  the  theoretic 
period  for  a  master's  degree.  In  point  of  fact,  it  has 
long  been  three  years'  residence,  and  four  years  more 
of  standing.  This  "three  years"  is  about  twenty-one 
months  in  all.* 

"  The  whole  expense,"  says  Professor  Sewel,  "  of  or- 
dinary college  tuition  at  Oxford,  is  about  sixteen  guineas 
a  year."  But  this  plausible  statement  may  deceive  a 
reader  unacquainted  with  the  fact,  that  the  principal 
teaching  relied  on  is  private  tuition.  And  the  expenses 
of  private  tuition  are  reckoned  at  from  £  50  to  £  70  a 
year,  or  $  1,000  for  the  whole  course  of  three  years  and 

*  Huber,  II.  p.  304. 


UNIVERSITIES.  157 

a  half.  At  Cambridge  $  750  a  year  is  economical,  and 
$  1,500  not  extravagant.* 

The  number  of  students  and  of  residents,  the  dignity 
of  the  authorities,  the  value  of  the  foundations,  the  his- 
tory and  the  architecture,  the  known  sympathy  of  entire 
Britain  in  what  is  done  there,  justify  a  dedication  to 
study  in  the  undergraduate,  such  as  cannot  easily  be  iii 
America,  where  his  college  is  half  suspected  by  the 
Freshman  to  be  insignificant  in  the  scale  beside  trade 
and  politics.  Oxford  is  a  little  aristocracy  in  itself,  nu- 
merous and  dignified  enough  to  rank  with  other  estates 
in  the  realm  ;  and  where  fame  and  secular  promotion  are 
to  be  had  for  study,  and  in  a  direction  which  has  the 
unanimous  respect  of  all  cultivated  nations. 

This  aristocracy,  of  course,  repairs  its  own  losses ;  fills 
places,  as  they  fall  vacant,  from  the  body  of  students. 
The  number  of  fellowships  at  Oxford  is  540,  averaging 
£  200  a  year,  with  lodging  and  diet  at  the  college.  If  a 
young  American,  loving  learning,  and  hindered  by  pov- 
erty, were  offered  a  home,  a  table,  the  walks,  and  the 
library,  in  one  of  these  academical  palaces,  and  a  thousand 
dollars  a  year  as  long  as  he  chose  to  remain  a  bachelor, 
he  would  dance  for  joy.  Yet  these  young  men  thus  hap- 
pily placed,  and  paid  to  read,  are  impatient  of  their  few 
checks,  and  many  of  them  preparing  to  resign  their  fellow- 
ships. They  shuddered  at  the  prospect  of  dying  a  Fellow, 
and  they  pointed  out  to  me  a  paralytic  old  man,  who  was 
assisted  into  the  hall.  As  the  number  of  undergraduates 
at  Oxford  is  only  about  1,200  or  1,300,  and  many  of  these 
are  never  competitors,  the  chance  of  a  fellowship  is  very 

*  Bristed,  Five  Years  at  an  English  University. 


158  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

great.    The  income  of  the  nineteen  colleges  is  conjec- 
tured at  £  150,000  a  year. 

The  effect  of  this  drill  is  the  radical  knowledge  of 
Greek  and  Latin,  and  of  mathematics,  and  the  solidity 
and  taste  of  English  criticism.  Whatever  luck  there  may 
be  in  this  or  that  award,  an  Eton  captain  can  write  Latin 
longs  and  shorts,  can  turn  the  Court-Guide  into  hex- 
ameters, and  it  is  certain  that  a  Senior  Classic  can  quote 
correctly  from  the  Corpus  Poetarum,  and  is  critically 
learned  in  all  the  humanities.  Greek  erudition  exists  on 
the  Isis  and  Cam,  whether  the  Maud  man  or  the  Brazen 
Nose  man  be  properly  ranked  or  not ;  the  atmosphere  is 
loaded  with  Greek  learning;  the  whole  river  has  reached 
a  certain  height,  and  kills  all  that  growth  of  weeds,  which 
this  Castalian  water  kills.  The  English  nature  takes 
culture  kindly.  So  Milton  thought.  It  refines  the  Norse- 
man. Access  to  the  Greek  mind  lifts  his  standard  of 
taste.  He  has  enough  to  think  of,  and,  unless  of  an  im- 
pulsive nature,  is  indisposed  from  writing  or  speaking, 
by  the  fulness  of  his  mind,  and  the  new  severity  of  his 
taste.  The  great  silent  crowd  of  thorough-bred  Grecians 
always  known  to  be  around  him,  the  English  writer 
cannot  ignore.  They  prune  his  orations,  and  point  his 
pen.  Hence,  the  style  and  tone  of  English  journalism. 
The  men  have  learned  accuracy  and  comprehension, 
logic,  and  pace,  or  speed  of  working.  They  have  bot- 
tom, endurance,  wind.  When  born  with  good  constitu- 
tions, they  make  those  eupeptic  studying-mills,  the  cast- 
iron  men,  the  dura  ilia,  whose  powers  of  performance 
compare  with  ours,  as  the  steam-hammer  with  the  music- 
box  ;  —  Cokes,  Mansfields,  Seldens,  and  Bentleys,  and 


UNIVERSITIES.  159 

when  it  happens  that  a  superior  brain  puts  a  rider  on 
this  admirable  horse,  we  obtain  those  masters  of  the 
world  who  combine  the  highest  energy  in  affairs,  with 
a  supreme  culture. 

It  is  contended  by  those  who  have  been  bred  at  Eton, 
Harrow,  Rugby,  and  Westminster,  that  the  public  sen- 
timent within  each  of  those  schools  is  high-toned  and 
manly ;  that,  in  their  playgrounds,  courage  is  universally 
admired,  meanness  despised,  manly  feelings  and  geuer- 
ous  conduct  are  eucouraged ;  that  an  unwritten  code  of 
honor  deals  to  the  spoiled  child  of  rank  and  to  the  child 
of  upstart  wealth  an  even-handed  justice,  purges  their 
nonsense  out  of  both,  and  does  all  that  can  be  done  to 
make  them  gentlemen. 

Again,  at  the  universities,  it  is  urged,  that  all  goes  to 
form  what  England  values  as  the  flower  of  its  national 
life,  —  a  well-educated  gentleman.  The  German  Huber, 
in  describing  to  his  countrymen  the  attributes  of  an. 
English  gentleman,  frankly  admits,  that  "in  Germany, 
we  have  nothing  of  the  kind.  A  gentleman  must  possess 
a  political  character,  an  independent  and  public  position, 
or,  at  least,  the  right  of  assuming  it.  He  must  have 
average  opulence,  either  of  his  own,  or  in  his  family. 
He  should  also  have  bodily  activity  and  strength,  unat- 
tainable by  our  sedentary  life  in  public  offices.  The  race 
of  English  gentlemen  presents  an  appearance  of  manly 
vigor  and  form,  not  elsewhere  to  be  found  among  an  equal 
number  of  persons.  No  other  nation  produces  the  stock. 
And  in  England,  it  has  deteriorated.  The  university  is 
a  decided  presumption  in  any  man's  favor.  And  so  em- 
inent are  the  members  that  a  glance  at  the  calendars  will 


160  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

show  that  in  all  tlie  world  one  cannot  be  in  better  com- 
pany than  on  the  books  of  one  of  the  larger  Oxford  or 
Cambridge  colleges."  * 

These  seminaries  are  finishing  schools  for  the  upper 
classes,  and  not  for  the  poor.  The  useful  is  exploded. 
The  definition  of  a  public  school  is  "a  school  which 
excludes  all  that  could  fit  a  mau  for  standing  behind  a 
counter."  f 

No  doubt,  the  foundations  have  been  perverted.  Ox- 
ford, which  equals  in  wealth  several  of  the  smaller  Eu- 
ropean states,  shuts  up  the  lectureships  which  M'ere  made 
"  public  for  all  men  thereunto  to  have  concourse  " ;  mis- 
spends the  revenues  bestowed  for  such  youths  "  as  should 
be  most  meet  for  towardness,  poverty,  and  pain  fulness"; 
there  is  gross  favoritism ;  many  chairs  and  many  fellow- 
ships are  made  beds  of  ease;  and  'tis  likely  that  the 
university  will  know  how  to  resist  and  make  inoperative 
the  terrors  of  parliamentary  inquiry ;  no  doubt,  their 
learning  is  grown  obsolete;  but  Oxford  also  has  its 
merits,  and  I  found  here  also  proof  of  the  national  fidelity 
and  thoroughness.  Such  knowledge  as  they  prize  they 
possess  and  impart.  Whether  in  course  or  by  indirec- 
tion, whether  by  a  cramming  tutor  or  by  examiners  with 
prizes  and  foundation  scholarships,  education  according  to 
the  English  notion  of  it  is  acquired.  I  looked  over  the 
Examination  Papers  of  the  year  1848,  for  the  various 
scholarships  and  fellowships,  the  Ltisby,  the  Hertford, 

*  Huber,  History  of  the  English  Universities.  Newman's 
Translation. 

f  See  Bristed,  Five  Years  in  an  English  University.  New- 
York,  1852. 


UNIVERSITIES.  161 

the  Dean-Ireland,  and  the  University  (copies  of  which 
were  kindly  given  me  by  a  Greek  professor),  containing 
the  tasks  which  many  competitors  had  victoriously  per- 
formed, and  I  believed  they  would  prove  too  severe  tests 
for  the  candidates  for  a  Bachelor's  degree  in  Yale  or 
Harvard.  And,  in  general,  here  was  proof  of  a  more 
searching  study  in  the  appointed  directions,  and  the 
knowledge  pretended  to  be  conveyed  was  conveyed. 
Oxford  sends  out  yearly  twenty  or  thirty  very  able 
men,  and  three  or  four  hundred  well-educated  men. 

The  diet  and  rough  exercise  secure  a  certain  amount 
of  old  Norse  power.  A  fop  will  fight,  and,  in  exigent 
circumstances,  will  play  the  manly  part.  In  seeing  these 
youths,  I  believed  I  saw  already  an  advantage  in  vigor 
and  color  and  general  habit,  over  their  contemporaries  in 
the  American  colleges.  No  doubt  much  of  the  power 
and  brilliancy  of  the  reading-men  is  merely  constitutional 
or  hygienic.  With  a  hardier  habit  and  resolute  gymnas- 
tics, with  five  miles  more  walking,  or  five  ounces  less 
eating,  or  with  a  saddle  and  gallop  of  twenty  miles  a  day, 
with  skating  and  rowing  matches,  the  American  would 
arrive  at  as  robust  exegesis,  and  cheery  and  hilarious 
tone.  I  should  readily  concede  these  advantages,  which 
it  would  be  easy  to  acquire,  if  I  did  not  find  also  that 
they  read  better  than  we,  and  write  better. 

English  wealth  falling  on  their  school  and  university 
training,  makes  a  systematic  reading  of  the  best  authors, 
and  to  the  end  of  a  knowledge  how  the  things  whereof 
they  treat  really  stand  :  whilst  pamphleteer  or  journalist 
reading  for  an  argument  for  a  party,  or  reading  to  write, 
or,  at  all  events,  for  some  by  end  imposed  on  them,  must 


162  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

read  meanly  and  fragmentarily.  Charles  I.  said,  that  he 
understood  English  law  as  well  as  a  gentleman  ought  to 
understand  it. 

Then  they  have  access  to  books ;  the  rich  libraries  col- 
lected at  every  one  of  many  thousands  of  houses,  give 
an  advantage  not  to  be  attained  by  a  youth  in  this  coun- 
try, when  one  thinks  how  much  more  and  better  may  be 
learned  by  a  scholar,  who,  immediately  on  hearing  of 
a  book,  can  consult  it,  than  by  one  who  is  on  the  quest 
for  years,  and  reads  inferior  books,  because  he  cannot 
find  the  best. 

Again,  the  great  number  of  cultivated  men  keep  each 
other  up  to  a  high  standard.  The  habit  of  meeting  well- 
read  and  knowing  men  teaches  the  art  of  omission  and 
selection. 

Universities  are,  of  course,  hostile  to  geniuses,  which 
seeing  and  using  ways  of  their  own,  discredit  the  rou- 
tine :  as  churches  and  monasteries  persecute  youthful 
saints.  Yet  we  all  send  our  sons  to  college,  and,  though 
he  be  a  genius,  he  must  take  his  chance.  The  university 
must  be  retrospective.  The  gale  that  gives  direction  to 
the  vanes  on  all  its  towers  blows  out  of  antiquity.  Ox- 
ford is  a  library,  and  the  professors  must  be  librarians. 
And  I  should  as  soon  think  of  quarrelling  with  the  jan- 
itor for  not  magnifying  his  office  by  hostile  sallies  into 
the  street,  like  the  Governor  of  Kertch  or  Kinburn,  as 
of  quarrelling  with  the  professors  for  not  admiring  the 
young  neologists  who  pluck  the  beards  of  Euclid  and 
Aristotle,  or  for  not  attempting  themselves  to  fill  their 
vacant  shelves  as  original  writers. 

It  is  easy  to  carp  at  colleges,  and  the  college,  if  we 


RELIGION.  163 

will  wait  for  it,  will  have  its  own  turn.  Genius  exists 
there  also,  but,  will  not  answer  a  call  of  a  committee  of 
the  House  of  Commons.  It  is  rare,  precarious,  eccen- 
tric, and  darkling.  England  is  the  land  of  mixture  and 
surprise,  and  when  you  have  settled  it  that  the  univer- 
sities are  moribund,  out  comes  a  poetic  influence  from 
the  heart  of  Oxford,  to  mould  the  opinions  of  cities,  to 
build  their  houses  as  simply  as  birds  their  nests,  to  give 
veracity  to  art,  and  charm  mankind,  as  an  appeal  to 
moral  order  always  must.  But  besides  this  restorative 
genius,  the  best  poetry  of  England  of  this  age,  in  the 
old  forms,  comes  from  two  graduates  of  Cambridge. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

RELIGION. 

No  people,  at  the  present  day,  can  be  explained  by 
their  national  religion.  They  do  not  feel  responsible  for 
it;  it  liesxfar  outside  of  them.  Their  loyalty  to  truth 
and  their  labor  and  expenditure  rest  on  real  foundations, 
and  not  on  a  national  church.  And  English  life,  it  is 
evident,  does  not  grow  out  of  the  Athanasian  creed,  or 
the  Articles,  or  the  Eucharist.  It  is  with  religion  as 
with  marriage.  A  youth  marries  in  haste;  afterwards, 
when  his  mind  is  opened  to  the  reason  of  the  conduct  of 
life,  he  is  asked,  what  he  thinks  of  the  institution  of  mar- 
riage, and  of  the  right  relations  of  the  sexes.  'I  should 
have  much  to  say,'  he  might  reply,  '  if  the  question  were 
open,  but  I  have  a  wife  and  children,  and  all  question  is 


164  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

closed  for  me.'  In  the  barbarous  days  of  a  nation,  some 
cultus  is  formed  or  imported  ;  altars  are  built,  tithes  are 
paid,  priests  ordained.  The  education  and  expenditure 
of  the  country  take  that  direction,  and  when  wealth,  re- 
finement, great  men,  and  ties  to  the  world  supervene,  its 
prudent  men  say,  why  fight  against  Fate,  or  lift  these 
absurdities  which  are  now  mountainous  ?  Better  find 
some  niche  or  crevice  in  this  mountain  of  stone  which 
religious  ages  have  quarried  and  carved,  wherein  to 
bestow  yourself,  than  attempt  anything  ridiculously  and 
dangerously  above  your  strength,  like  removing  it. 

In  seeing  old  castles  and  cathedrals,  I  sometimes  say, 
as  to-day,  in  front  of  Dundee  Church  tower,  which  is 
eight  hundred  years  old,  '  this  was  built  by  another  and 
a  better  race  than  any  that  now  look  on  it.'  And,  plainly, 
there  has  been  great  power  of  sentiment  at  work  in  this 
island,  of  which  these  buildings  are  the  proofs  :  as  vol- 
canic basalts  show  the  work  of  fire  which  has  been  extin- 
guished for  ages.  England  felt  the  full  heat  of  the  Chris- 
tianity which  fermented  Europe,  and  drew,  like  the 
chemistry  of  fire,  a  firm  line  between  barbarism  and  cul- 
ture. The  power  of  the  religious  sentiment  put  an  end 
to  human  sacrifices,  checked  appetite,  inspired  the  cru- 
sades, inspired  resistance  to  tyrants,  inspired  self-respect, 
set  bounds  to  serfdom  and  slavery,  founded  liberty, 
created  the  religious  architecture,  —  York,  Ncwstead, 
Westminster,  Fountains  Abbey,  Ripon,  Beverloy,  and 
Dundee,  —  works  to  which  the  key  is  lost,  with  the  senti- 
ment which  created  them ;  inspired  the  English  Bible, 
the  liturgy,  the  monkish  histories,  the  chronicle  of  Rich- 
ard of  Devizes.  The  priest  translated  the  Vulgate,  and 


RELIGION.  165 

translated  the  sanctities  of  old  hagiology  into  English 
virtues  on  English  ground.  It  was  a  certain  affirmative 
or  aggressive  state  of  the  Caucasian  races.  Man  awoke 
refreshed  by  the  sleep  of  ages.  The  violence  of  the 
Northern  savages  exasperated  Christianity  into  power. 
It  lived  by  the  love  of  the  people.  Bishop  Wilfrid  man- 
umitted two  hundred  and  fifty  serfs,  whom  he  found 
attached  to  the  soil.  The  clergy  obtained  respite  from 
labor  for  the  boor  on  the  Sabbath,  and  on  church  festi- 
vals. "  The  lord  who  compelled  his  boor  to  labor  be- 
tween sunset  on  Saturday  and  sunset  on  Sunday,  forfeited 
him  altogether."  The  priest  came  out  of  the  people,  and 
sympathized  with  his  class.  The  church  was  the  media- 
tor, check,  and  democratic  principle  in  Europe.  Latimer, 
Wicliffe,  Arundel,  Cobham,  Antony  Parsons,  Sir  Harry 
Vane,  George  Fox,  Penn,  Bunyan,  are  the  democrats,  as 
well  as  the  saints  of  their  times.  The  Catholic  Church, 
thrown  on  this  toiling,  serious  people,  has  made  in  four- 
teen centuries  a  massive  system,  close  fitted  to  the  man- 
ners and  genius  of  the  country,  at  once  domestical  and 
stately.  In  the  long  time,  it  has  blended  with  every- 
thing in  heaven  above  and  the  earth  beneath.  It  moves 
through  a  zodiac  of  feasts  and  fasts,  names  every  day  of 
the  year,  every  town  and  market  and  headland  and  monu- 
ment, and  has  coupled  itself  with  the  almanac,  that  no 
court  can  be  held,  no  field  ploughed,  no  horse  shod,  with- 
out some  leave  from  the  church.  All  maxims  of  pru- 
dence or  shop  or  farm  are  fixed  and  dated  by  the  church. 
Hence,  its  strength  in  the  agricultural  districts.  The 
distribution  of  land  into  parishes  enforces  a  church  sanc- 
tion to  every  civil  privilege ;  and  the  gradation  of  the 


166  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

clergy,  —  prelates  for  the  rich,  aud  curates  for  the  poor, 
—  with  the  fact  that  a  classical  education  has  been  se- 
cured to  the  clergyman,  makes  them  "  the  link  which 
unites  the  sequestered  peasantry  with  the  intellectual 
advancement  of  the  age."  * 

The  English  Church  has  many  certificates  to  show,  of 
humble  effective  service  in  humanizing  the  people,  in 
cheering  aud  refining  men,  feeding,  healing,  aud  educat- 
ing. It  has  the  seal  of  martyrs  and  confessors ;  the 
noblest  books ;  a  sublime  architecture ;  a  ritual  marked 
by  the  same  secular  merits,  nothing  cheap  or  purchasa- 
ble. 

From  this  slow-grown  church  important  reactions  pro- 
ceed ;  much  for  culture,  much  for  giving  a  direction  to 
the  nation's  affection  and  will  to-day.  The  carved  and 
pictured  chapel  —  its  entire  surface  animated  with  image 
and  emblem  —  made  the  parish-church  a  sort  of  book 
and  Bible  to  the  people's  eye. 

Then,  when  the  Saxon  instinct  had  secured  a  service 
in  the  vernacular  tongue,  it  was  the  tutor  and  university 
of  the  people.  In  York  minster,  on  the  day  of  the 
enthronization  of  the  new  archbishop,  I  heard  the  ser- 
vice of  evening  prayer  read  and  chanted  in  the  choir. 
It  was  strange  to  hear  the  pretty  pastoral  of  the  betrothal 
of  Rebecca  and  Isaac,  in  the  morning  of  the  world,  read 
with  circumstantiality  in  York  minster,  on  the  13th  Jan- 
uary, 1848,  to  the  decorous  English  audience,  just  fresh 
from  the  Times  newspaper  and  their  wine ;  and  listening 
with  all  the  devotion  of  national  pride.  That  was  bind- 
ing old  and  new  to  some  purpose.  The  reverence  for 

*  Wordsworth. 


RELIGION.  167 

the  Scriptures  is  an  elerrrnt  of  civilization,  for  thus  has 
the  history  of  the  world  been  preserved,  and  is  pre- 
served. Here  in  England  every  day  a  chapter  of  Gen- 
esis,  and  a  leader  in  the  Times. 

Another  part  of  the  same  service  on  this  occasion  was 
not  insignificant.  Handel's  coronation  anthem,  God  save 
the  King,  was  played  by  Dr.  Camidge  on  the  organ,  with 
sublime  effect.  The  minster  and  the  music  were  made 
for  each  other.  It  was  a  hint  of  the  part  the  church 
plays  as  a  political  engine.  From  his  infancy,  every 
Englishman  is  accustomed  to  hear  daily  prayers  for  the 
queen,  for  the  royal  family,  and  the  Parliament,  by  name ; 
and  this  lifelong  consecration  of  these  personages  cannot 
be  without  influence  on  his  opinions. 

The  universities,  also,  are  parcel  of  the  ecclesiastical 
system,  and  their  first  design  is  to  form  the  clergy.  Thus 
the  clergy  for  a  thousand  years  have  been  the  scholars  of 
the  nation. 

The  national  temperament  deeply  enjoys  the  unbroken 
order  and  tradition  of  its  church  ;  the  liturgy,  ceremony, 
architecture ;  the  sober  grace,  the  good  company,  the 
connection  with  the  throne,  and  with  history,  which 
adorn  it.  And  whilst  it  endears  itself  thus  to  men  of 
more  taste  than  activity,  the  stability  of  the  English 
nation  is  passionately  enlisted  to  its  support,  from  its 
inextricable  connection  with  the  cause  of  public  order, 
with  politics,  and  with  the  funds. 

Good  churches  are  not  built  by  bad  men ;  at  least 
there  must  be  probity  and  enthusiasm  somewhere  in  soci- 
ety. These  minsters  were  neither  built  nor  filled  by 


168  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

atheists.  No  church  has  had  more  learned,  industrious, 
or  devoted  men ;  plenty  of  "  clerks  and  bishops,  who, 
out  of  their  gowns,  would  turn  their  backs  on  no  man."  * 
Their  architecture  still  glows  with  faith  in  immortality. 
Heats  and  genial  periods  arrive  in  history,  or,  shall  we 
say,  plenitudes  of  Divine  Presence,  by  which  high  tides 
are  caused  in  the  human  spirit,  and  great  virtues  and 
talents  appear,  as  in  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and 
again  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  when 
the  nation  was  full  of  genius  and  piety. 

But  the  age  of  the  Wicliffes,  Cobhams,  Arundels,  Beck- 
ets ;  of  the  Latimers,  Mores,  Cranmers ;  of  the  Taylors, 
Leightons,  Herberts;  of  the  Sherlocks,  and  Butlers,  is 
gone.  Silent  revolutions  in  opinion  have  made  it  impos- 
sible that  men  like  these  should  return  or  find  a  place  in 
their  once  sacred  stalls.  The  spirit  that  dwelt  in  this 
church  has  glided  away  to  animate  other  activities  ;  and 
they  who  come  to  the  old  shrines  find  apes  and  players 
rustling  the  old  garments. 

The  religion  of  England  is  part  of  good  breeding. 
When  you  see  on  the  Continent  the  well-dressed  English- 
man come  into  his  ambassador's  chapel,  and  put  his  face 
for  silent  prayer  into  his  smooth-brushea  hat,  one  cannot 
help  feeling  how  much  national  pride  prays  with  him, 
and  the  religion  of  a  gentleman.  So  far  is  he  from 
attaching  any  meaning  to  the  words,  that  he  believes 
himself  to  have  done  almost  the  generous  thing,  and  that 
it  is  very  condescending  in  him  to  pray  to  God.  A  great 
duke  said  on  the  occasion  of  a  victory,  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  that  he  thought  the  Almighty  God  had  not  been 

*  Fuller. 


RELIGION.  169 

well  used  by  them,  and  that  it  would  become  their  mag- 
nanimity, after  so  great  successes,  to  take  order  that  a 
proper  acknowledgment  be  made.  It  is  the  church  of 
the  gentry ;  but  it  is  not  the  church  of  the  poor.  The 
operatives  do  not  own  it,  and  gentlemen  lately  testified 
in  the  House  of  Commons  that  in  their  lives  they  never 
saw  a  poor  man  in  a  ragged  coat  inside  a  church. 

The  torpidity  on  the  side  of  religion  of  the  vigorous 
English  understanding  shows  how  much  wit  and  folly 
can  agree  in  one  brain.  Their  religion  is  a  quotation ; 
their  church  is  a  doll ;  and  any  examination  is  interdicted 
with  screams  of  terror.  In  good  company,  you  expect 
them  to  laugh  at  the  fanaticism  of  the  vulgar  ;  but  they 
do  not ;  they  are  the  vulgar. 

The  English,  in  common  perhaps  with  Christendom  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  do  not  respect  power,  but  only 
performance;  value  idea's  only  for  an  economic  result. 
Wellington  esteems  a  saint  only  as  far  as  he  can  be  an 
army  chaplain  :  "  Mr.  Briscoll,  by  his  admirable  conduct 
and  good  sense,  got  the  better  of  Methodism,  which  had 
appeared  among  the  soldiers,  and  once  among  the  offi- 
cers." They  value  a  philosopher  as  they  value  an  apothe- 
cary who  brings  bark  or  a  drench  ;  and  inspiration  is  only 
some  blowpipe,  or  a  finer  mechanical  aid. 

I  suspect  that  there  is  in  an  Englishman's  brain  a  valve 
that  can  be  closed  at  pleasure,  as  an  engineer  shuts  off 
steam.  The  most  sensible  and  well-informed  men  possess 
the  power  of  thinking  just  so  far  as  the  bishop  in  relig- 
ious matters,  and  as  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  in 
politics.  They  talk  with  courage  and  logic,  and  show 
you  magnificent  results ;  but  the  same  men  who  have 


170  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

brought  free-trade  or  geology  to  their  present  standing, 
look  grave  and  lofty,  and  shut  down  their  valve,  as  soon 
as  the  conversation  approaches  the  English  Church. 
After  that,  you  talk  with  a  box-turtle. 

The  action  of  the  university,  both  in  what  is  taught,  and 
in  the  spirit  of  the  place,  is  directed  more  on  producing 
an  English  gentleman,  than  a  saint  or  a  psychologist.  It 
ripens  a  bishop,  and  extrudes  a  philosopher.  I  do  not 
know  that,  there  is  more  cabalism  in  the  Anglican,  than 
in  other  churches,  but  the  Anglican  clergy  are  identified 
with  the  aristocracy.  They  say,  here,  that,  if  you  talk 
with  a  clergyman,  you  are  sure  to  find  him  well  bred, 
informed,  and  candid.  He  entertains  your  thought  or 
your  project  with  sympathy  and  praise.  But  if  a  second 
clergyman  come  in,  the  sympathy  is  at  an  end :  two  to- 
gether are  inaccessible  to  your  thought,  and,  whenever  it 
comes  to  action,  the  clergyman  invariably  sides  with  his 
church. 

The  Anglican  church  is  marked  by  the  grace  and  good 
sense  of  its  forms,  by  the  manly  grace  of  its  clergy.  The 
gospel  it  preaches  is,  '  By  taste  are  ye  saved.'  It  keeps 
the  old  structures  in  repair,  spends  a  world  of  money  in 
music  and  building ;  and  in  buying  Pugiu,  and  architec- 
tural literature.  It  has  a  general  good  name  for  amenity 
and  mildness.  It  is  not  in  ordinary  a  persecuting  church ; 
it  is  not  inquisitorial,  not  even  inquisitive,  is  perfectly 
well  bred,  and  can  shut  its  eyes  on  all  proper  occasions. 
If  you  let  it  alone,  it  will  let  you  alone.  But  its  instinct 
is  hostile  to  all  change  in  politics,  literature,  or  social 
arts.  The  church  lias  not  been  the  founder  of  the  Lon- 
don University,  of  the  Mechanics'  Institutes,  of  the  Free 


RELIGION.  171 

School,  or  whatever  aims  at  diffusion  of  knowledge.  The 
Platouists  of  Oxford  are  as  bitter  against  this  heresy,  as 
Thomas  Taylor. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Old  Testament  is  the  religion  of 
England.  The  first  leaf  of  the  New  Testament  it  does 
not  open.  It  believes  in  a  Providence  which  does  not 
treat  with  levity  a  pound  sterling.  They  are  neither 
transcendentalists  nor  Christians.  They  put  up  no  So- 
cratic  prayer,  much  less  any  saintly  prayer  for  the  queen's 
mind ;  ask  neither  for  light  nor  right,  but  say  bluntly, 
"Grant  her  in  health  and  wealth  long  to  live."  And 
one  traces  this  Jewish  prayer  in  all  English  private  his- 
tory, from  the  prayers  of  King  Richard,  in  Richard  of 
Devizes'  Chronicle,  to  those  in  the  diaries  of  Sir  Samuel 
Romilly,  and  of  Haydou  the  painter.  "Abroad  with  my 
wife,"  writes  Pepys  piously,  "  the  first  time  that  ever  I 
rode  in  my  own  coach  ;  which  do  make  my  heart  rejoice 
and  praise  God,  and  pray  him  to  bless  it  to  me,  and  con- 
tinue it."  The  bill  for  the  naturalization  of  the  Jews  (in 
1753)  was  resisted  by  petitions  from  all  parts  of  the  king- 
dom, and  by  petition  from  the  city  of  London,  reprobat- 
ing this  bill,  as  "  tending  extremely  to  the  dishonor  of 
the  Christian  religion,  and  extremely  injurious  to  the  in- 
terests and  commerce  of  the  kingdom  in  general,  and  of 
the  city  of  London  in  particular." 

But  they  have  not  been  able  to  congeal  humanity  by 
act  of  Parliament.  "  The  heavens  journey  still  and  so- 
journ not,"  and  arts,  wars,  discoveries,  and  opinion  go 
onward  at  their  own  pace.  The  new  age  has  new  de- 
sires, new  enemies,  new  trades,  new  charities,  and  reads 
the  Scriptures  with  new  eyes.  The  chatter  of  French 


172  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

politics,  the  steam-whistle,  the  hum  of  the  mill,  and  the 
noise  of  embarking  emigrants,  had  quite  put  most  of 
the  old  legends  out  of  mind ;  so  that  when  you  came  to 
read  the  liturgy  to  a  modern  congregation,  it  was  almost 
absurd  in  its  unfitness,  and  suggested  a  masquerade  of 
old  costumes. 

No  chemist  has  prospered  ia  the  attempt  to  crystallize 
a  religion.  It  is  endogenous,  like  the  skin,  and  other 
vital  organs.  A  new  statement  every  day.  The  prophet 
and  apostle  knew  this,  and  the  non-conformist  confutes 
the  conformists,  by  quoting  the  texts  they  must  allow. 
It  is  the  condition  of  a  religion,  to  require  religion  for 
its  expositor.  Prophet  and  apostle  can  only  be  rightly 
understood  by  prophet  and  apostle.  The  statesman 
knows  that  the  religious  element  will  not  fail,  any  more 
than  the  supply  of  fibrine  and  chyle ;  but  it  is  in  its 
nature  constructive,  and  will  organize  such  a  church  as 
it  wants.  The  wise  legislator  will  spend  on  temples, 
schools,  libraries,  colleges,  but  will  shun  the  enriching  of 
priests.  If,  in  any  manner,  he  can  leave  the  election  and 
paying  of  the  priest  to  the  people,  he  will  do  well.  Like 
the  Quakers,  he  may  resist  the  separation  of  a  class  of 
priests,  and  create  opportunity  and  expectation  in  the 
society,  to  run  to  meet  natural  endowment,  in  this  kind. 
But,  when  wealth  accrues  to  a  chaplaincy,  a  bishopric,  or 
rectorship,  it  requires  moneyed  men  for  its  stewards,  who 
will  give  it  another  direction  than  to  the  mystics  of  their 
day.  Of  course,  money  will  do  after  its  kind,  and  will 
steadily  work  to  unspiritualize  and  unchurch  the  people 
to  whom  it  was  bequeathed.  The  class  certain  to  be 
excluded  from  all  preferment  are  the  religious,  —  aud 


RELIGION.  173 

driven  to  other  churches ;  —  which  is  nature's  vis  medi- 
catrix. 

The  curates  are  ill  paid,  and  the  prelates  are  overpaid. 
This  abuse  draws  into  the  church  the  children  of  the 
nobility,  and  other  unfit  persons,  who  have  a  taste  for 
expense.  Thus  a  bishop  is  only  a  surpliced  merchant. 
Through  his  lawn,  I  can  see  the  bright  buttons  of  the 
shopman's  coat  glitter.  A  wealth  like  that  of  Durham 
makes  almost  a  premium  on  felony.  Brougham,  in  a 
speech  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  Irish  elective 
franchise,  said,  "How  will  the  reverend  bishops  of  the 
other  house  be  able  to  express  their  due  abhorrence  of 
the  crime  of  perjury,  who  solemnly  declare  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God,  that  when  they  are  called  upon  to  accept  a 
living,  perhaps  of  £4,000  a  year,  at  that  very  instant,  they 
are  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  accept  the  office  and 
administration  thereof,  and  for  no  other  reason  what- 
ever?" The  modes  of  initiation  are  more  damaging 
than  custom-house  oaths.  The  bishop  is  elected  by  the 
Dean  and  Prebends  of  the  cathedral.  The  Queen  sends 
these  gentlemen  a  conge  d'elire,  or  leave  to  elect;  but 
also  sends  them  the  name  of  the  person  whom  they  are 
to  elect.  They  go  into  the  cathedral,  chant  and  pray, 
and  beseech  the  Holy  Ghost  to  assist  them  in  their 
choice ;  and,  after  these  invocations,  invariably  find  that 
the  dictates  of  the  Holy  Ghost  agree  with  the  recom- 
mendations of  the  Queen. 

But  you  must  pay  for  conformity.  All  goes  well  as 
long  as  you  run  with  conformists.  But  you,  who  are  an 
honest  man  in  other  particulars,  know,  that  there  is  alive 
somewhere  a  man  whose  honesty  reaches  to  this  point 


174  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

also,  that  he  shall  not  kneel  to  false  gods,  and,  on  the 
day  when  you  meet  him,  you  sink  into  the  class  of  coun- 
terfeits. Besides,  this  succumbing  has  grave  penalties. 
If  you  take  in  a  lie,  you  must  take  in  all  that  belongs  to 
it.  England  accepts  this  ornamented  national  church, 
and  it  glazes  the  eyes,  bloats  the  flesh,  gives  the  voice  a 
stertorous  clang,  and  clouds  the  understanding  of  the 
receivers. 

The  English  Church,  undermined  by  German  criticism, 
had  nothing  left  but  tradition,  and  was  led  logically  back 
to  Romanism.  But  that  was  an  element  which  only  hot 
heads  could  breathe :  in  view  of  the  educated  class, 
generally,  it  was  not  a  fact  to  front  the  sun;  and  the 
alienation  of  such  men  from  the  church  became  complete. 

Nature,  to  be  sure,  had  her  remedy.  Religious  per- 
sons are  driven  out  of  the  Established  Church  into  sects, 
which  instantly  rise  to  credit,  and  hold  the  Establishment 
in  check.  Nature  has  sharper  remedies,  also.  The  Eng- 
lish, abhorring  change  in  all  things,  abhorring  it  most  in 
matters  of  religion,  cling  to  the  last  rag  of  form,  and  are 
dreadfully  given  to  cant.  The  English  (and  I  wisli  it 
were  confined  to  them,  but  't  is  a  taint  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  blood  in  both  hemispheres),  the  English  and  the 
Americans  cant  beyond  all  other  nations.  The  French 
relinquish  all  that  industry  to  them.  What  is  so  odious 
as  the  polite  bows  to  God,  in  our  books  and  newspapers? 
The  popular  press  is  flagitious  in  the  exact  measure  of  its 
sanctimony,  and  the  religion  of  the  day  is  a  theatrical 
Sinai,  where  the  thunders  are  supplied  by  the  property- 
man.  The  fanaticism  and  hypocrisy  create  satire.  Punch 
finds  an  inexhaustible  material.  Dickens  writes  novels 


RELIGION.  175 

on  Exeter  Hall  humanity.  Thackeray  exposes  the  heart- 
less high  life.  Nature  revenges  herself  more  summarily 
by  the  heathenism  of  the  lower  classes.  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury  calls  the  poor  thieves  together,  and  reads  sermons 
to  them,  and  they  call  it  'gas.'  George  Borrow  sum- 
mons the  Gypsies  to  hear  his  discourse  on  the  Hebrews 
in  Egypt,  and  reads  to  them  the  Apostles'  creed  in 
Romany.  "  When  I  had  concluded,"  he  says,  "  I  looked 
around  me.  The  features  of  the  assembly  were  twisted, 
and  the  eyes  of  all  turned  upon  me  with  a  frightful 
squint:  not  an  individual  present  but  squinted;  the  gen- 
teel Pepa,  the  good-humored  Chicharona,  the  Cosdami, 
all  squinted  :  the  Gypsy  jockey  squinted  worst  of  all." 

The  church  at  this  moment  is  much  to  be  pitied.  She 
has  nothing  left  but  possession.  If  a  bishop  meets  an 
intelligent  gentleman,  and  reads  fatal  interrogations  in 
his  eyes,  he  has  no  resource  but  to  take  wine  with  him. 
False  position  introduces  cant,  perjury,  simony,  and  ever 
a  lower  class  of  mind  and  character  into  the  clergy ;  and, 
when  the  hierarchy  is  afraid  of  science  and  education, 
afraid  of  piety,  afraid  of  tradition,  and  afraid  of  theology, 
there  is  nothing  left  but  to  quit  a  church  which  is  no 
longer  one. 

But  the  religion  of  England, — is  it  the  Established 
Church?  no;  is  it  the  sects?  no;  they  are  only  perpetu- 
ations of  some  private  man's  dissent,  and  are  to  the  Es- 
tablished Church  as  cabs  are  to  a  coach,  cheaper  and 
more  convenient,  but  really  the  same  thing.  Where 
dwells  the  religion?  Tell  me  first  where  dwells  elec- 
tricity, or  motion,  or  thought,  or  gesture.  They  do  not 
dwell  or  stay  at  all.  Electricity  cannot  be  made  fast, 


176  ENGLISH    TKAITS. 

mortared  up  and  euded,  like  London  Monument,  or  the 
Tower,  so  that  you  shall  know  where  to  find  it,  and  keep 
it  fixed,  as  the  English  do  with  their  things,  forevermore ; 
it  is  passing,  glancing,  gesticular;  it  is  a  traveller,  a 
newness,  a  surprise,  a  secret,  which  perplexes  them,  and 
puts  them  out.  Yet,  if  religion  be  the  doing  of  all  good, 
and  for  its  sake  the  suffering  of  all  evil,  soujfrir  de  tout  le 
monde  et  ne  faire  soujfrir  personne,  that  divine  secret  has 
existed  in  England  from  the  days  of  Alfred  to  those  of 
Romilly,  of  Clarkson,  and  of  Florence  Nightingale,  and  in 
thousands  who  have  no  fame. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

LITERATURE. 

A  STRONG  common-sense,  which  it  is  not  easy  to  unseat 
or  disturb,  marks  the  English  mind  for  a  thousand  years ; 
a  rude  strength  newly  applied  to  thought,  as  of  sailors 
and  soldiers  who  had  lately  learned  to  read.  They  have 
no  fancy,  and  never  are  surprised  into  a  covert  or  witty 
word,  such  as  pleased  the  Athenians  and  Italians,  and 
was  convertible  into  a  fable  not  long  after  ;  but  they  de- 
light in  strong  earthy  expression,  not  mistakable,  coarsely 
true  to  the  human  body,  and,  though  spoken  among 
princes,  equally  fit  and  welcome  to  the  mob.  This  home- 
liness, veracity,  and  plain  style  appear  in  the  earliest 
extant  works,  and  in  the  latest.  It  imports  into  songs 
and  ballads  the  smell  of  the  earth,  the  breath  of  cattle, 
and,  like  a  Dutch  painter,  seeks  a  household  charm, 


LITEllATUKE.  177 

though  by  pails  and  pans.  They  ask  their  constitutional 
utility  in  verse.  The  kail  and  herrings  are  never  out  of 
sight.  The  poet  nimbly  recovers  himself  from  every 
sally  of  the  imagination.  The  English  muse  loves  the 
farm-yard,  the  lane  and  market.  She  says,  with  De 
Stael,  "I  tramp  iu  the  mire  with  wooden  shoes,  when- 
ever they  would  force  me  into  the  clouds."  Tor,  the 
Englishman  has  accurate  perceptions;  takes  hold  of 
things  by  the  right  end,  and  there  is  no  slipperiuess  in 
his  grasp.  He  loves  the  axe,  the  spade,  the  oar,  the 
gun,  the  steam-pipe:  he  has  built  the  engine  he  uses. 
He  is  materialist,  economical,  mercantile.  He  must  be 
treated  with  sincerity  and  reality,  witli  muffins  and  not 
the  promise  of  muffins ;  and  prefers  his  hot  chop,  with 
perfect  security  and  convenience  in  the  eating  of  it,  to 
the  chances  of  the  amplest  and  Frenchiest  bill  of  fare, 
engraved  on  embossed  paper.  When  he  is  intellectual, 
and  a  poet  or  a  philosopher,  he  carries  the  same  hard 
truth  and  the  same  keen  machinery  into  the  mental 
sphere.  His  mind  must  stand  on  a  fact.  He  will  not 
be  baffled,  or  catch  at  clouds,  but  the  mind  must  have 
a  symbol  palpable  and  resisting.  What  lie  relishes  in 
Dante,  is  the  vice-like  tenacity  with  which  he  holds  a 
mental  image  before  the  eyes,  as  if  it  were  a  scutcheon 
painted  on  a  shield.  Byron  "liked  something  craggy 
to  break  his  mind  upon."  A  taste  for  plain  strong 
speech,  what  is  called  a  biblical  style,  marks  the  English. 
It  is  in  Alfred,  and  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  and  in  the 
Sagas  of  the  Northmen.  Latimer  was  homely.  Hobbes 
was  perfect  iu  the  "noble  vulgar  speech."  Donne, 
Bunyan,  Milton,  Taylor,  Evelyn,  Pepys,  Hooker,  Cotton, 


178  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

and  the  translators,  wrote  it.  How  realistic  or  material- 
istic iu  treatment  of  his  subject  is  Swift.  He  describes 
his  fictitious  persons  as  if  for  the  police.  Defoe  has  no 
insecurity  or  choice.  Hudibras  has  the  same  hard  men- 
tality, —  keeping  the  truth  at  once  to  the  senses,  and  to 
the  intellect. 

It  is  not  less  seen  in  poetry.  Chaucer's  hard  painting 
of  his  Canterbury  pilgrims  satisfies  the  senses.  Shak- 
speare,  Spenser,  and  Milton,  in  their  loftiest  ascents, 
have  this  national  grip  and  exactitude  of  mind.  This 
mental  materialism  makes  the  value  of  English  transcen- 
dental genius ;  iu  these  writers,  and  in  Herbert,  Henry 
More,  Donne,  and  Sir  Thomas  Browne.  The  Saxon 
materialism  and  narrowness,  exalted  into  the  sphere  of 
intellect,  makes  the  very  genius  of  Shakspeare  and  Mil- 
ton. When  it  reaches  the  pure  element,  it  treads  the 
clouds  as  securely  as  the  adamant.  Even  in  its  eleva- 
tions, materialistic,  its  poetry  is  common-sense  inspired ; 
or  iron  raised  to  white  heat. 

The  marriage  of  the  two  qualities  is  in  their  speech. 
It  is  a  tacit  rule  of  the  language  to  make  the  frame  or 
skeleton  of  Saxon  words,  and,  when  elevation  or  orna- 
ment is  sought,  to  interweave  Roman ;  but  sparingly ; 
nor  is  a  sentence  made  of  Roman  words  alone,  without 
loss  of  strengtli.  The  children  and  laborers  use  the  Saxon 
unmixed.  The  Latin  unmixed  is  abandoned  to  the  col- 
leges and  Parliament.  Mixture  is  a  secret  of  the  Eng- 
lish island;  and,  in  their  dialect,  the  male  principle  is 
the  Saxon;  the  female,  the  Latin;  and  they  are  com- 
bined in  every  discourse.  A  good  writer,  if  he  has  in- 
dulged in  a  Roman  roundiK  ss,  makes  haste  to  chasten  and 
nerve  his  period  by  English  monosyllables. 


LITERATURE.  179 

When  the  Gothic  nations  came  into  Europe,  they 
found  it  lighted  with  the  sun  and  moon  of  Hebrew  and 
of  Greek  genius.  The  tablets  of  their  brain,  long  kept 
in  the  dark,  were  finely  sensible  to  the  double  glory.  To 
the  images  from  this  twin  source  (of  Christianity  and  art), 
the  mind  became  fruitful  as  by  the  incubation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  The  English  mind  flowered  in  every  faculty. 
The  common-sense  was  surprised  and  inspired.  For  two 
centuries,  England  was  philosophic,  religious,  poetic. 
The  mental  furniture  seemed  of  larger  scale ;  the  memory 
capacious  like  the  storehouse  of  the  rains.  The  ardor  and 
endurance  of  study;  the  boldness  and  facility  of  their 
mental  construction;  their  fancy,  and  imagination,  and 
easy  spanning  of  vast  distances  of  thought;  the  enter- 
prise or  accosting  of  new  subjects ;  and,  generally,  the 
easy  exertion  of  power,  astonish,  like  the  legendary  feats 
of  Guy  of  Warwick.  The  union  of  Saxon  precision  and 
Oriental  soaring,  of  which  Shakspeare  is  the  perfect 
example,  is  shared  in  less  degree  by  the  writers  of  two 
centuries.  I  find  not  only  the  great  masters  out  of  all 
rivalry  and  reach,  but  the  whole  writing  of  the  time 
charged  with  a  masculine  force  and  freedom. 

There  is  a  hygienic  simpleness,  rough  vigor,  and  close- 
ness to  the  matter  in  hand,  even  in  the  second  and  third 
class  of  writers ;  and,  I  think,  in  the  common  style  of 
the  people,  as  one  finds  it  in  the  citation  of  wills,  letters, 
and  public  documents,  in  proverbs,  and  forms  of  speech. 
The  more  hearty  and  sturdy  expression  may  indicate 
that  the  savageness  of  the  Norseman  was  not  all  gone. 
Their  dynamic  brains  hurled  off  their  words,  as  the  revolv- 
ing stone  hurls  off  scraps  of  grit.  I  could  cite  from  the 


180  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

seventeenth  century  sentences  and  phrases  of  edge  not  to 
be  matched  in  the  nineteenth.  Their  poets  by  simple 
force  of  mind  equalized  themselves  with  the  accumulated 
science  of  ours.  The  country  gentlemen  had  a  posset  or 
drink  they  called  October ;  and  the  poets,  as  if  by  this 
hint,  knew  how  to  distil  the  whole  season  into  their 
autumnal  verses:  and,  as  nature,  to  pique  the  more, 
sometimes  works  up  deformities  into  beauty,  in  some  rare 
Aspasia,  or  Cleopatra ;  and,  as  the  Greek  art  wrought 
many  a  vase  or  column,  in  which  too  long,  or  too  lithe, 
or  nodes,  or  pits  and  flaws,  are  made  a  beauty  of;  so 
these  were  so  quick  and  vital,  that  they  could  charm  and 
enrich  by  mean  and  vulgar  objects. 

A  man  must  think  that  age  well  taught  and  thought- 
ful, by  which  masques  and  poems,  like  those  of  Ben 
Jonson,  full  of  heroic  sentiment  in  a  manly  style,  were 
received  with  favor.  The  unique  fact  in  literary  history, 
the  unsurprised  reception  of  Shakspeare,  —  the  recep- 
tion proved  by  his  making  his  fortune ;  and  the  apathy 
proved  by  the  absence  of  all  contemporary  panegyric,  — 
seems  to  demonstrate  an  elevation  in  the  mind  of  the 
people.  Judge  of  the  splendor  of  a  nation,  by  the  insig- 
nificance of  great  individuals  in  it.  The  manner  in  which 
they  learned  Greek  and  Latin,  before  our  modern  facili- 
ties were  yet  ready,  without  dictionaries,  grammars,  or 
indexes,  by  lectures  of  a  professor,  followed  by  their  own 
searchings,  —  required  a  more  robust  memory,  and  co- 
operation of  all  the  faculties ;  and  their  scholars,  Cam- 
den,  Usher,  Selden,  Mede,  Gataker,  Hooker,  Taylor, 
Burton,  Bentley,  Brian  Walton,  acquired  the  solidity 
and  method  of  engineers. 


LITER ATU HE.  181 

The  influence  of  Plato  tinges  the  British  genius. 
Their  minds  loved  analogy;  were  cognizant  of  resem- 
blances, and  climbers  on  the  staircase  of  unity.  'T  is  a 
very  old  strife  between  those  who  elect  to  see  identity, 
and  those  who  elect  to  see  discrepancies ;  and  it  renews 
itself  in  Britain.  The  poets,  of  course,  are  of  one  part; 
the  men  of  the  world,  of  the  other.  But  Britain  had 
many  disciples  of  Plato,  —  More,  Hooker,  Bacon,  Sidney, 
Lord  Brooke,  Herbert,  Browne,  Donne,  Spenser,  Chap- 
man, Milton,  Crashaw,  Norris,  Cudvvorth,  Berkeley,  Jere- 
my Taylor. 

Lord  Bacon  has  the  English  duality.  His  centuries 
of  observations,  on  useful  science,  and  his  experiments, 
I  suppose,  were  worth  nothing.  One  hint  of  Franklin, 
or  Watt,  or  Daltou,  or  Davy,  or  any  one  who  had  a 
talent  for  experiment,  was  worth  all  his  lifetime  of 
exquisite  trifles.  But  he  drinks  of  a  diviner  stream,  and 
murks  the  influx  of  idealism  into  England.  Where  that 
goes,  is  poetry,  health,  and  progress.  The  rules  of  its 
genesis  or  its  diffusion  are  not  known.  That  knowledge, 
if  we  had  it,  would  supersede  all  we  call  science  of  the 
mind.  It  seems  an  affair  of  race,  or  of  meta-chemis- 
try; —  the  vital  point  being,  —  how  far  the  sense  of 
unity,  or  instinct  of  seeking  resemblances  predominated. 
For,  wherever  the  mind  takes  a  step,  it  is,  to  put  itself  at 
one  with  a  larger  class,  discerned  beyond  the  lesser  class 
with  which  it  has  been  conversant.  Hence,  all  poetry, 
and  all  affirmative  action  comes. 

Bacon,  in  the  structure  of  his  mind,  held  of  the  anal- 
ogists,  of  the  idealists,  or  (as  we  popularly  say,  naming 
from  the  best  example)  Platonists.  Whoever  discredits 


182  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

analogy,  and  requires  heaps  of  facts,  before  any  theories 
can  be  attempted,  has  no  poetic  power,  and  nothing 
original  or  beautiful  will  be  produced  by  him.  Locke 
is  as  surely  the  influx  of  decomposition  and  of  prose,  as 
Bacon  and  the  Platonists,  of  growth.  The  Platonic  is 
the  poetic  tendency ;  the  so-called  scientific  is  the  nega- 
tive and  poisonous.  'T  is  quite  certain,  that  Spenser, 
Burns,  Byron,  and  Wordsworth  will  be  Platouists;  and 
that  the  dull  men  will  be  Lockists.  Then  politics  and 
commerce  will  absorb  from  the  educated  class  men  of 
talents  without  genius,  precisely  because  such  have  no 
resistance. 

Bacon,  capable  of  ideas,  yet  devoted  to  ends,  required 
in  his  map  of  the  mind,  first  of  all,  universality,  or  prima 
philosophia,  the  receptacle  for  all  such  profitable  observa- 
tions and  axioms  as  fall  not  within  the  compass  of  any 
of  the  special  parts  of  philosophy,  but  are  more  common, 
and  of  a  higher  stage.  He  held  this  element  essential : 
it  is  never  out  of  mind :  he  never  spares  rebukes  for 
such  as  neglect  it ;  believing  that  no  perfect  discovery 
can  be  made  in  a  flat  or  level,  but  you  must  ascend  to  A 
higher  science.  "If  any  man  thinketh  philosophy  and 
universality  to  be  idle  studies,  he  does  not  consider  that 
all  professions  are  from  thence  served  and  supplied ;  and 
this  I  take  to  be  a  great  cause  that  has  hindered  the  pro- 
gression of  learning,  because  these  fundamental  knowl- 
edges have  been  studied  but  in  passage."  He  explained 
himself  by  giving  various  quaint  examples  of  the  sum- 
mary or  common  laws,  of  which  each  science  has  its  own 
illustration.  He  complains,  that  "  he  finds  this  part  of 
learning  very  deficient,  the  profounder  sort  of  wits  draw- 


LITERATURE.  183 

ing  a  bucket  now  and  then  for  their  own  use,  but  the 
spring-head  unvisited.  This  was  the  dry  light  which  did 
scorch  and  offend  most  men's  watery  natures."  Plato  had 
signified  the  same  sense,  when  he  said :  "  All  the  great 
arts  require  a  subtle  and  speculative  research  into  the 
law  of  nature,  since  loftiness  of  thought  and  perfect 
mastery  over  every  subject  seem  to  be  derived  from 
some  such  source  as  this.  This  Pericles  had,  in  addi- 
tion to  a  great  natural  genius.  For,  meeting  with  Anax- 
agoras,  who  was  a  person  of  this  kind,  he  attached  him- 
self to  him,  and  nourished  himself  with  sublime  specula- 
tions on  the  absolute  intelligence ;  and  imported  thence 
into  the  oratorical  art  whatever  could  be  useful  to  it." 

A  few  generalizations  always  circulate  in  the  world, 
whose  authors  we  do  not  rightly  know,  which  astonish, 
and  appear  to  be  avenues  to  vast  kingdoms  of  thought, 
and  these  are  in  the  world  constants,  like  the  Copernican 
and  Newtonian  theories  in  physics.  In  England,  these 
may  be  traced  usually  to  Shakspeare,  Bacon,  Milton,  or 
Hooker,  even  to  Van  Helmont  and  Behmen,  and  do  all 
have  a  kind  of  filial  retrospect  to  Plato  and  the  Greeks. 
Of  this  kind  is  Lord  Bacon's  sentence,  that  "  Nature  is 
commanded  by  obeying  her  "  ;  his  doctrine  o(  poetry, 
which  "accommodates  the  shows  of  things  to  the  desires 
of  the  mind  " ;  or  the  Zoroastrian  definition  of  poetry, 
mystical,  yet  exact,  "  apparent  pictures  of  unapparent 
natures  " ;  Spenser's  creed,  that  "  soul  is  form,  and  doth 
the  body  make  " ;  the  theory  of  Berkeley,  that  we  have 
no  certain  assurance  of  the  existence  of  matter ;  Doctor 
Samuel  Clarke's  argument  for  theism  from  the  nature  of 
space  and  time;  Harrington's  political  rule,  that  pov.er 


184  hXGMSII    TRAITS. 

must  rest  on  laud,  —  a  rule  which  requires  to  be  liberally 
interpreted ;  the  theory  of  Swedeuborg,  so  cosmically 
applied  by  him,  that  the  man  makes  his  heaveu  and  hell ; 
Hegel's  study  of  civil  history,  as  the  conflict  of  ideas  and 
the  victory  of  the  deeper  thought ;  the  identity-philosophy 
of  Schelling,  couched  in  the  statement  that  "all  differ- 
ence is  quantitative."  So  the  very  announcement  of  the 
theory  of  gravitation,  of  Kepler's  three  harmonic  laws, 
and  even  of  Dalton's  doctrine  of  definite  proportions, 
finds  a  sudden  response  in  the  mind,  which  remaius  a 
superior  evidence  to  empirical  demonstrations.  I  cite 
these  generalizations,  some  of  which  are  more  recent, 
merely  to  indicate  a  class.  Not  these  particulars,  but 
the  mental  plane  or  the  atmosphere  from  which  they 
emanate,  was  the  home  and  element  of  the  writers  and 
readers  in  what  we  loosely  call  the  Elizabethan  age  (say 
in  literary  history,  the  period  from  1575  to  1625),  yet 
a  period  almost  short  enough  to  justify  Ben  Jonson's 
remark  on  Lord  Bacon  :  "  About  his  time,  and  within 
his  view,  were  born  all  the  wits  that  could  honor  a 
nation,  or  help  study." 

Such  richness  of  genius  had  not  existed  more  than  once 
before.  These  heights  could  not  be  maintained.  As  we 
find  stumps  of  vast  trees  in  our  exhausted  soils,  and  have 
received  traditions  of  their  ancient  fertility  to  tillage,  so 
history  reckons  epochs  in  which  the  intellect  of  famed 
races  became  effete.  So  it  fared  with  English  genius. 
These  heights  were  followed  by  a  meanness,  and  a  de- 
scent of  the  mind  into  lower  levels ;  the  loss  of  wings ; 
no  high  speculation.  Locke,  to  whom  the  meaning  of 
ideas  was  unknown,  became  the  type  of  philosophy,  and 


LIT  K  RATUJIE.  185 

his  "understanding"  the  measure,  in  all  nations,  of  the 
English  intellect.  His  countrymen  forsook  the  lofty 
sides  of  Parnassus,  on  which  they  had  once  walked  with 
echoing  steps,  and  disused  the  studies  once  so  beloved ; 
the  powers  of  thought  fell  into  neglect.  The  later  Eng- 
lish want  the  faculty  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  of  grouping 
men  in  natural  classes  by  an  insight  of  general  laws,  so 
deep,  that  the  rule  is  deduced  with  equal  precision  from 
few  subjects  or  from  one,  as  from  multitudes  of  lives. 
Shakspeare  is  supreme  in  that,  as  in  all  the  great  mental 
energies.  The  Germans  generalize :  the  English  cannot 
interpret  the  German  mind.  German  science  compre- 
hends the  English.  The  absence  of  the  faculty  in 
England  is  shown  by  the  timidity  which  accumulates 
mountains  of  facts,  as  a  bad  general  wants  myriads  of 
men  and  miles  of  redoubts,  to  compensate  the  inspira- 
tions of  courage  and  conduct. 

The  English  shrink  from  a  generalization.  "  They  do 
not  look  abroad  into  universality,  or  they  draw  only  a 
bucketful  at  the  fountain  of  the  First  Philosophy  for 
their  occasion,  and  do  not  go  to  the  spring-head." 
Bacon,  who  said  this,  is  almost  unique  among  his  coun- 
trymen in  that  faculty,  at  least  among  the  prose-writers. 
Milton,  who  was  the  stair  or  high  table-land  to  let  down 
the  English  genius  from  the  summits  of  Shakspeare,  used 
this  privilege  sometimes  in  poetry,  more  rarely  in  prose. 
For  a  long  interval  afterwards,  it  is  not  found.  Burke 
was  addicted  to  generalizing,  but  his  was  a  shorter  line ; 
as  his  thoughts  have  less  depth,  they  have  less  compass. 
Hume's  abstractions  are  not  deep  or  wise.  He  owes  his 
fame  to  one  keen  observation,  that  no  copula  had  been 


186  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

detected  between  any  cause  and  effect,  either  in  physics 
or  in  thought ;  that  the  term  cause  and  effect  \vas  loosely 
or  gratuitously  applied  to  what  we  know  only  as  consecu- 
tive, not.  at  all  as  causal.  Dr.  Johnson's  written  abstrac- 
tions have  little  value :  the  tone  of  feeling  in  them  makes 
their  chief  worth. 

Mr.  Hallam,  a  learned  and  elegant  scholar,  has  written 
the  history  of  European  literature  for  three  centuries,  — 
a  performance  of  great  ambition,  inasmuch  as  a  judgment 
was  to  be  attempted  on  every  book.  But  his  eye  does 
not  reach  to  the  ideal  standards;  the  verdicts  are  all 
dated  from  London :  all  new  thought  must  be  cast  into 
the  old  moulds.  The  expansive  element  which  creates 
literature  is  steadily  denied.  Plato  is  resisted,  and  his 
school.  Hallam  is  uniformly  polite,  but  M'ith  deficient 
sympathy ;  writes  with  resolute  generosity,  but  is  uncon- 
scious of  the  deep  worth  which  lies  in  the  mystics,  and 
which  often  outvalues  as  a  seed  of  power  and  a  source  of 
revolution  all  the  correct  writers  and  shining  reputations 
of  their  day.  He  passes  in  silence,  or  dismisses  with  a 
kind  of  contempt,  the  profounder  masters  :  a  lover  of 
ideas  is  not  only  uncongenial,  but  unintelligible.  Hallam 
inspires  respect  by  his  knowledge  and  fidelity,  by  his 
manifest  love  of  good  books,  and  he  lifts  himself  to  own 
better  than  almost  any  the  greatness  of  Shakspeare,  and 
better  than  Johnson  he  appreciates  Milton.  But  in  Hal- 
lam, or  in  the  firmer  intellectual  nerve  of  Mackintosh,  one 
still  finds  the  same  type  of  English  genius.  It  is  wise 
and  rich,  but  it  lives -on  its  capital.  It  is  retrospective. 
How  can  it  discern  and  hail  the  new  forms  that  are  loom- 
ing up  on  the  horizon,  —  new  and  gigantic  thoughts 


LITERATURE.  187 

which  cannot  dress  themselves  out  of  any  old  wardrobe 
of  the  past  ? 

The  essays,  the  fiction,  and  the  poetry  of  the  day  have 
the  like  municipal  limits.  Dickens,  with  preternatural 
apprehension  of  the  language  of  manners,  and  the  varie- 
ties of  street  life,  with  pathos  and  laughter,  with  patriotic 
and  still  enlarging  generosity,  writes  London  tracts.  He 
is  a  painter  of  English  details,  like  Hogarth ;  local  and 
temporary  in  his  tints  and  style,  and  local  in  his  aims. 
Bulwer,  an  industrious  writer,  with  occasional  ability,  is 
distinguished  for  his  reverence  of  intellect  as  a  temporal- 
ity, and  appeals  to  the  worldly  ambition  of  the  student. 
His  romances  tend  to  fan  these  low  flames.  Their  novel- 
ists despair  of  the  heart.  Thackeray  finds  that  God  has 
made  no  allowance  for  the  poor  thing  in  his  universe ;  — 
more  's  the  pity,  he  thinks  ;  — but 't  is  not  for  us  to  be 
wiser:  we  must  renounce  ideals,  and  accept  London. 

The  brilliant  Macaulay,  who  expresses  the  tone  of  the 
English  governing  classes  of  the  day,  explicitly  teaches, 
that  good  means  good  to  eat,  good  to  wear,  material 
commodity ;  that  the  glory  of  modern  philosophy  is  its 
direction  on  "  fruit "  ;  to  yield  economical  inventions  ; 
and  that  its  merit  is  to  avoid  ideas,  and  avoid  morals. 
He  thinks  it  the  distinctive  merit  of  the  Baconian  philos- 
ophy, in  its  triumph  over  the  old  Platonic,  its  disentan- 
gling the  intellsct  from  theories  of  the  all-Fair  and  all- 
Good,  and  pinning  it  down  to  the  making  a  better 
sick-chair  and  a  better  wine-whey  for  an  invalid  ;  —  this 
not  ironically,  but  in  good  faith ;  —  that,  "  solid  advan- 
tage," as  he  calls  it,  meaning  always  sensual  benefit,  is 
the  only  good.  The  eminent  benefit  of  astronomy  is  the 


ISO  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

better  navigation  it  creates  to  enable  the  fruit-ships  io 
bring  home  their  lemons  and  wine  to  the  London  grocer. 
It  was  a  curious  result,  in  which  the  civility  and  religion 
of  England  for  a  thousand  years  ends  in  denying  morals, 
and  reducing  the  intellect  to  a  saucepan.  The  critic 
hides  his  scepticism  under  the  English  cant  of  practical. 
To  convince  the  reason,  to  touch  the  conscience,  is  ro- 
mantic pretension.  The  fine  arts  fall  to  the  ground. 
Beauty,  except  as  luxurious  commodity,  does  not  exist. 
It  is  very  certain,  I  may  say  in  passing,  that  if  Lord 
Bacon  had  been  only  the  sensualist  his  critic  pretends, 
he  would  never  have  acquired  the  fame  which  now  en- 
titles him  to  this  patronage.  It  is  because  he  had  im- 
agination, the  leisures  of  the  spirit,  and  basked  in  an 
element  of  contemplation  out  of  all  modern  English 
atmospheric  gauges,  that  he  is  impressive  to  the  imagi- 
nations of  men,  and  has  become  a  potentate  not  to  be 
ignored.  Sir  David  Brewster  sees  the  higb  place  of 
Bacon,  without  finding  Newton  indebted  to  him,  and 
thinks  it  a  mistake.  Bacon  occupies  it  by  specific  grav- 
ity or  levity,  not  by  any  feat  he  did,  or  by  any  tutoring 
more  or  less  of  Newton,  etc.,  but  an  effect  of  the  same 
cause  which  showed  itself  more  pronounced  afterwards 
in  Hooke,  Boyle,  and  Halley. 

Coleridge,  a  catholic  mind,  with  a  hunger  for  ideas, 
with  eyes  looking  before  and  after  to  the  highest  bards 
and  sages,  and  who  wrote  and  spoke  the  only  high  criti- 
cism in  his  time,  is  one  of  those  who  save  England 
from  the  reproach  of  no  longer  possessing  the  capacity 
to  appreciate  what  rarest  wit  the  island  has  yielded. 
Yet  the  misfortune  of  his  life,  his  vast  attempts  but  most 


LITERATURE.  189 

inadequate  perfonnings,  failing  to  accomplish  any  one 
masterpiece,  seems  to  mark  the  closing  of  an  era.  Even 
in  him,  the  traditional  Englishman  was  too  strong  for 
the  philosopher,  and  he  fell  into  accommodations:  and, 
as  Burke  had  striven  to  idealize  the  English  State,  so 
Coleridge  '  narrowed  his  mind  '  in  the  attempt  to  recon- 
cile the  Gothic  rule  and  dogma  of  the  Anglican  Church, 
with  eternal  ideas.  But  for  Coleridge,  and  a  lurking 
taciturn  minority,  uttering  itself  in  occasional  criticism, 
oftener  in  private  discourse,  one  would  say,  that  iu 
Germany  and  in  America  is  the  best  mind  in  England 
rightly  respected.  It  is  the  surest  sign  of  national  decay, 
when  the  Bramins  can  no  longer  read  or  understand  the 
Braminical  philosophy. 

In  the  decomposition  and  asphyxia  that  followed  all 
this  materialism,  Carlyle  was  driven  by  his  disgust  at  the 
pettiness  and  the  cant,  into  the  preaching  of  Fate.  In 
comparison  with  all  this  rottenness,  any  check,  any 
cleansing,  though  by  fire,  seemed  desirable  and  beautiful. 
He  saw  little  difference  in  the  gladiators,  or  the  "causes" 
for  which  they  combated;  the  one  comfort  was,  that  they 
were  all  going  speedily  into  the  abyss  together.  And 
his  imagination,  finding  no  nutriment  in  any  creation, 
avenged  itself  by  celebrating  the  majestic  beauty  of  the 
laws  of  decay.  The  necessities  of  mental  structure  force 
all  minds  into  a  few  categories,  and  where  impatience  of 
the  tricks  of  men  makes  Nemesis  amiable,  and  builds 
altars  to  the  negative  Deity,  the  inevitable  recoil  is  to 
heroism  or  the  gallantry  of  the  private  heart,  which 
decks  its  immolation  with  glory,  iu  the  unequal  combat 
of  will  against  fate. 


190  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

Wilkinson,  the  editor  of  Swedenborg,  the  annotator  of 
Fourier,  and  the  champion  of  Hahnemann,  has  brought 
to  metaphysics  and  to  physiology  a  native  vigor,  with  a 
catholic  perception  of  relations,  equal  to  the  highest  at- 
tempts, and  a  rhetoric  like  the  armory  of  the  invincible 
knights  of  old.  There  is  in  the  action  of  his  mind  a  long 
Atlantic  roll  not  known  except  in  deepest  waters,  and 
only  lacking  what  ought  to  accompany  such  powers,  a 
manifest  centrality.  If  his  mind  does  not  rest  in  immov- 
able biases,  perhaps  the  orbit  is  larger,  and  the  return  is 
not  yet  :  but  a  master  should  inspire  a  confidence  that 
he  will  adhere  to  his  convictions,  and  give  his  present 
studies  always  the  same  high  place. 

It  would  be  easy  to  add  exceptions  to  the  limitary  tone 
of  English  thought,  and  much  more  easy  to  adduce  ex- 
amples of  excellence  in  particular  veins ;  and  if,  going 
out  of  the  region  of  dogma,  we  pass  into  that  of  general 
culture,  there  is  no  end  to  the  graces  and  amenities,  wit, 
sensibility,  and  erudition,  of  the  learned  class.  But  fhe 
artificial  succor  which  marks  all  English  performance, 
appears  in  letters  also :  much  of  their  aesthetic  produc- 
tion is  antiquarian  and  manufactured,  and  literary  repu- 
tations have  been  achieved  by  forcible  men,  whose 
relation  to  literature  was  purely  accidental,  but  who 
were  driven  by  tastes  and  modes  they  found  in  vogue 
into  their  several  careers.  So,  at  this  moment,  every 
ambitious  young  man  studies  geology;  so  members  of 
Parliament  are  made,  and  churchmen. 

The  bias  of  Englishmen  to  practical  skill  has  reacted 
on  the  national  mind.  They  are  incapable  of  an  inutility, 
and  respect  the  five  mechanic  powers  even  in  their  song. 


LITERATURE.  191 

The  voice  of  their  modern  muse  has  a  slight  hint  of  the 
steam-whistle,  and  the  poem  is  created  as  an  ornament 
and  finish  of  their  monarchy,  and  by  no  means  as  the 
bird  of  a  new  morning  which  forgets  the  past  world  in 
the  full  enjoyment  of  that  which  is  forming.  They  are 
•with  difficulty  ideal ;  they  are  the  most  conditioned  men, 
as  if,  having  the  best  conditions,  they  could  not  bring 
themselves  to  forfeit  them.  Every  one  of  them  is  a 
thousand  years  old,  and  lives  by  his  memory ;  and  wheu 
you  say  this,  they  accept  it  as  praise. 

Nothing  comes  to  the  book-shops  but  politics,  travels, 
statistics,  tabulation,  and  engineering,  and  even  what  is 
called  philosophy  and  letters  is  mechanical  in  its  struc- 
ture, as  if  inspiration  had  ceased,  as  if  no  vast  hope,  no 
religion,  no  song  of  joy,  no  wisdom,  no  analogy,  existed 
any  more.  The  tone  of  colleges  and  of  scholars  and  of 
literary  society  has  this  mortal  air.  I  seem  to  walk  on 
a  marble  floor,  where  nothing  will  grow.  They  exert 
every  variety  of  talent  on  a  lower  ground,  and  may  be 
said  to  live  and  act  in  a  sub-mind.  They  have  lost  all 
commanding  views  in.  literature,  philosophy,  and  science. 
A  good  Englishman  shuts  himself  out  of  three  fourths 
of  his  mind,  and  confines  himself  to  one  fourth.  He  has 
learning,  good  sense,  power  of  labor,  and  logic :  but  a 
faith  in  the  laws  of  the  mind  like  that  of  Archimedes ;  a 
belief  like  that  of  Euler  and  Kepler,  that  experience  must 
follow  and  not  lead  the  laws  of  the  mind ;  a  devotion  to 
the  theory  of  politics,  like  that  of  Hooker,  and  Milton, 
and  Harrington,  the  modern  English  mind  repudiates. 

I  fear  the  same  fault  lies  in  their  science,  since  they 
have  known  how  to  make  it  repulsive,  and  bereave  nature 


192  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

of  its  charm;  —  though  perhaps  the  complaint  flics  wider, 
and  the  vice  attaches  to  many  more  than  to  British  physi- 
cists. The  eye  of  the  naturalist  must  have  a  scope  like 
nature  itself,  a  susceptibility  to  all  impressions,  alive  to 
the  heart  as  well  as  to  the  logic  of  creation.  But  Eng- 
lish science  puts  humanity  to  the  door.  It  wants  the 
connection  which  is  the  test  of  genius.  The  science  is 
false  by  Hot  being  poetic.  It  isolates  the  reptile  or  niol- 
lusk  it  assumes  to  explain  ;  whilst  reptile  or  mollusk  only 
exists  in  system,  in  relation.  The  poet  only  sees  it  as  an 
inevitable  step  in  the  path  of  the  Creator.  But,  in  Eng- 
land, one  hermit  finds  this  fact,  and  another  finds  that, 
and  lives  and  dies  ignorant  of  its  value.  There  are  great 
exceptions,  of  John  Hunter,  a  man  of  ideas;  perhaps  of 
Robert  Brown,  the  botanist;  and  of  Richard  Owen,  who 
has  imported  into  Britain  the  German  honiologies,  and 
enriched  science  with  contributions  of  his  own,  adding 
sometimes  the  divination  of  the  old  masters  to  the  un- 
broken power  of  labor  in  the  English  mind.  But.  for  the 
most  p  irt,  the  natural  science  in  England  is  out.  of  its 
loyal  alliance  with  morals,  and  is  as  void  of  imagination 
and  free  play  of  thought,  as  conveyancing.  It  stands  iu 
strong  contrast  with  the  genius  of  the  Germans,  those 
semi-Greeks,  who  love  analogy,  and,  by  means  of  their 
height  of  view,  preserve  their  enthusiasm,  and  think  for 
Europe. 

No  hope,  no  sublime  augury,  cheers  the  student,  no 
secure  striding  from  experiment  onward  to  a  foreseen  law, 
but  only  a  casual  dipping  here  and  there,  like  diggers  in 
California  "prospecting  fora  placer"  that  will  pay.  A 
horizon  of  brass  of  the  diameter  of  his  umbrella  shuts 


LITEEATURE.  193 

down  around  his  senses.  Squalid  contentment  with  con- 
ventions, satire  at  the  names  of  philosophy  and  religion, 
parochial  and  shop-till  politics,  and  idolatry  of  usage, 
betray  the  ebb  of  life  and  spirit.  As  they  trample  on 
nationalities  to  reproduce  London  and  Londoners  in 
Europe  and  Asia,  so  they  fear  the  hostility  of  ideas,  of 
poetry,  of  religion,  —  ghosts  which  they  cannot  lay ;  and, 
having  attempted  to  domesticate  and  dress  the  Blessed 
Soul  itself  in  English  broadcloth  and  gaiters,  they  are 
tormented  with  fear  that  herein  lurks  a  force  that  will 
sweep  their  system  away.  The  artists  say,  "  Nature  puts 
us  out "  ;  the  scholars  have  become  un-ideal.  They  parry 
earnest  speech  with  banter  and  levity;  they  laugh  you 
down,  or  they  change  the  subject.  "  The  fact  is,"  say 
they  over  their  wine,  "  all  that  about  liberty,  and  so  forth, 
is  gone  by ;  it  won't  do  any  longer."  The  practical  and 
comfortable  oppress  them  with  inexorable  claims,  and  the 
smallest  fraction  of  power  remains  for  heroism  and  poetry. 
No  poet  dares  murmur  of  beauty  out  of  the  precinct  of 
his  rhymes.  No  priest  dares  hint  at  a  Providence  which 
does  not  respect  English  utility.  The  island  is  a  roaring 
volcano  of  fate,  of  material  values,  of  tariffs,  and  laws  of 
repression,  glutted  markets  and  low  prices. 

In  the  absence  of  the  highest  aims,  of  the  pure  love  of 
knowledge,  and  the  surrender  to  nature,  there  is  the 
suppression  of  the  imagination,  the  priapism  of  the 
senses  and  the  understanding;  we  have  the  factitious 
instead  of  the  natural ;  tasteless  expense,  arts  of  comfort, 
and  the  rewarding  as  an  illustrious  inventor  whosoever 
will  contrive  one  impediment  more  to  interpose  between 
the  man  and  his  objects. 

9  M 


194  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

Thus  poetry  is  degraded,  and  made  ornamental.  Pope 
and  his  school  wrote  poetry  fit  to  put  round  frosted 
cake.  What  did  Walter  Scott  write  without  stint  ?  a 
rhymed  traveller's  guide  to  Scotland.  And  the  libraries 
of  verses  they  print  have  this  Birmingham  character. 
How  many  volumes  of  well-bred  metre  we  must  jingle 
through,  before  we  can  be  filled,  taught,  renewed !  We 
want  the  miraculous ;  the  beauty  which  we  can  manufac- 
ture at  no  mill,  —  can  give  no  account  of ;  the  beauty  of 
which  Chaucer  and  Chapman  had  the  secret.  The  poetry 
of  course  is  low  and  prosaic ;  only  now  and  then,  as  in 
Wordsworth,  conscientious ;  or  in  Byron,  passional ;  or 
in  Tennyson,  factitious.  But  if  I  should  count  the  poets 
who  have  contributed  to  the  Bible  of  existing  England 
sentences  of  guidance  and  consolation  which  are  still 
glowing  and  effective,  —  how  few  !  Shall  I  find  my 
heavenly  bread  in  the  reigning  poets  ?  Where  is  great 
design  in  modern  English  poetry  ?  The  English  have 
lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  poetry  exists  to  speak  the 
spiritual  law,  and  that  no  wealth  of  description  or  of 
fancy  is  yet  essentially  new,  and  out  of  the  limits  of 
prose,  until  this  condition  is  reached.  Therefore  the 
grave  old  poets,  like  the  Greek  artists,  heeded  their 
designs,  and  less  considered  the  finish.  It  was  their 
office  to  lead  to  the  divine  sources,  out  of  which  all  this, 
and  much  more,  readily  springs ;  and,  if  this  religion  is 
in  the  poetry,  it  raises  us  to  some  purpose,  and  we  can 
well  afford  some  staidness,  or  hardness,  or  want  of  pop- 
ular tune  in  the  verses. 

The  exceptional  fact  of  the  period  is  the  genius  of 
Wordsworth.  He  had  no  master  but  nature  and  soli- 


LITERATURE.  195 

tude.  "  He  wrote  a  poern,"  says  Landor,  "  without  the 
aid  of  war."  His  verse  is  the  voice  of  sanity  in  a 
worldly  and  ambitious  age.  One  regrets  that  his  tem- 
perament was  not  more  liquid  and  musical.  He  has 
written  longer  than  he  was  inspired.  But  for  the  rest, 
he  has  no  competitor. 

Tennyson  is  endowed  precisely  in  points  where  Words- 
worth wanted.  There  is  no  finer  ear  than  Tennyson's, 
nor  more  command  of  the  keys  of  language.  Color,  like 
the  dawn,  flows  over  the  horizon  from  his  pencil,  in 
waves  so  rich  that  we  do  not  miss  the  central  form. 
Through  all  his  refinements,  too,  he  has  reached  the 
public,  —  a  certificate  of  good  sense  and  general  power, 
since  he  who  aspires  to  be  the  English  poet  must  be  as 
large  as  London,  not  in  the  same  kind  as  London,  but  in 
his  own  kind.  But  he  wants  a  subject,  and  climbs  no 
mount  of  vision  to  bring  its  secrets  to  the  people.  He 
contents  himself  with  describing  the  Englishman  as  he  is, 
and  proposes  no  better.  There  are  all  degrees  in  poetry, 
and  we  must  be  thankful  for  every  beautiful  talent.  But 
it  is  only  a  first  success,  when  the  ear  is  gained.  The 
best  office  of  the  best  poets  has  been  to  show  how  low 
and  uninspired  was  their  general  style,  and  that  only 
once  or  twice  they  have  struck  the  high  chord. 

That  expansiveness  which  is  the  essence  of  the  poetic 
element,  they  have  not.  It  was  no  Oxonian,  but  Hafiz, 
who  said:  "Let  us  be  crowned  with  roses,  let  us  drink 
wine,  and  break  up  the  tiresome  old  roof  of  heaven  into 
new  forms."  A  stanza  of  the  song  of  nature  the  Ox- 
onian has  no  ear  for,  and  he  does  not  value  the  salient 
and  curative  influence  of  intellectual  action,  studious  of 
truth,  without  a  by-end. 


196  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

By  the  law  of  contraries,  I  look  for  an  irresistible  taste 
for  Orientalism  in  Britain.  For  a  self-conceited  modish 
life,  made  up  of  trifles,  clinging  to  a  corporeal  civiliza- 
tion, hating  ideas,  there  is  no  remedy  like  the  Oriental 
largeness.  That  astonishes  and  disconcerts  English 
decorum.  For  once  there  is  thunder  it  never  heard, 
light  it  never  saw,  and  power  which  trifles  with  time 
and  space.  I  am  not  surprised,  then,  to  find  an  English- 
man like  Warren  Hastings,  who  had  been  struck  with 
the  grand  style  of  thinking  in  the  Indian  writings,  dep- 
recating the  prejudices  of  his  countrymen,  while  offer- 
ing them  a  translation  of  the  Bhagvat.  "  Might  I,"  he 
says,  "an  unlettered  man,  venture  to  prescribe  bounds 
to  the  latitude  of  criticism,  I  should  exclude,  in  estimat- 
ing the  merit  of  such  a  production,  all  rules  drawn  from 
the  ancient  or  modern  literature  of  Europe,  all  references 
to  such  sentiments  or  manners  as  are  become  the  stand- 
ards of  propriety  for  opinion  and  action  in  our  own 
modes,  and,  equally,  all  appeals  to  our  revealed  tenets, 
of  religion  and  moral  duty."  *  He  goes  on  to  bespeak 
indulgence  to  "  ornaments  of  fancy  unsuited  to  our  taste, 
and  passages  elevated  to  a  tract  of  sublimity  into  which 
our  habits  of  judgment  will  find  it  difficult  to  pursue 
them." 

Meantime,  I  know  that  a  retrieving  power  lies  in  the 
English  race,  which  seems  to  make  any  recoil  possible ; 
in  other  words,  there  is  at  all  times  a  minority  of  pro- 
found minds  existing  in  the  nation,  capable  of  appreciat- 
ing every  soaring  of  intellect  and  every  hint  of  tendency. 
While  the  constructive  talent  seems  dwarfed  and  superfi- 

*  Preface  to  Wilkins's  Translation  of  the  Bhagvat  Geeta. 


THE   "TIMES."  197 

cial,  the  criticism  is  often  in  the  noblest  tone,  and  sug- 
gests the  presence  of  the  invisible  gods.  I  c;in  well 
believe  what  I  have  often  heard,  that  there  are  two  na- 
tions in  Euglaud  ;  but  it  is  not  the  Poor  and  the  Rich ; 
nor  is  it  the  Normans  and  Saxons  ;  nor  the  Celt  and  the 
Goth.  These  are  each  always  becoming  the  other ;  for 
Robert  Owen  does  not  exaggerate  the  power  of  circum- 
stance. But  the  two  complexions,  or  two  styles  of  mind, 
—  the  perceptive  class,  and  the  practical  finality  class,  — 
are  ever  in  counterpoise,  interacting  mutually ;  one,  in 
hopeless  minorities;  the  other,  in  huge  masses;  one  studi- 
ous, contemplative,  experimenting ;  the  other,  the  un- 
grateful pupil,  scornful  of  the  source,  whilst  availing  itself 
of  the  knowledge  for  gain ;  these  two  nations,  of  genius 
and  of  animal  force,  though  the  first  consist  of  only  a 
dozen  souls,  and  the  second  of  twenty  millions,  forever 
by  their  discord  and  their  accord  yield  the  power  of  the 
English  State. 

CHAPTER  XV. 
THE  "TIMES." 

THE  power  of  the  newspaper  is  familiar  in  America, 
and  in  accordance  with  our  political  system.  In  Eng- 
land, it  stands  in  antagonism  with  the  feudal  institutions, 
and  it  is  all  the  more  beneficent  succor  against  ths  secre- 
tive tendencies  of  a  monarchy.  The  celebrated  L  >rd 
Soiners  "  knew  of  no  good  law  proposed  and  passed  in 
his  time,  to  which  the  public  papers  had  not  directed  his 
»Ue:**-ion."  There  is  no  corner  and  no  night.  A  relent- 


198  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

less  inquisition  drags  every  secret  to  the  day,  turns  the 
glare  of  this  solar  microscope  on  every  malfaisance,  so 
as  to  make  the  public  a  more  terrible  spy  than  any  for- 
eigner; and  no  weakness  can  be  taken  advantage  of  by 
an  enemy,  since  the  whole  people  are  already  forewarned. 
Thus  England  rids  herself  of  those  incrustations  which 
have  been  the  ruin  of  old  states.  Of  course,  this  inspec- 
tion is  feared.  No  antique  privilege,  no  comfortable 
monopoly,  but  sees  surely  that  its  days  are  counted ;  the 
people  are  familiarized  with  the  reason  of  reform,  and, 
one  by  one,  take  away  every  argument  of  the  obstruc- 
tives. "  So  your  Grace  likes  the  comfort  of  reading  the 
newspapers,"  said  Lord  Mansfield  to  the  Duke  of  North- 
umberland ;  "  mark  my  words  ;  you  and  I  shall  not  live  to 
see  it,  but  this  young  gentleman  (Lord  Eidon)  may,  or 
it  may  be  a  little  later;  but  a  little  sooner  or  later,  these 
newspapers  will  most  assuredly  write  the  dukes  of  Nor- 
thumberland out  of  their  titles  and  possessions,  and  the 
country  out  of  its  king."  The  tendency  in  England 
towards  social  and  political  institutions  like  those  of 
America,  is  inevitable,  and  the  ability  of  its  journals  is 
the  driving  force. 

England  is  full  of  manly,  clever,  well-bred  men  who 
possess  the  talent  of  writing  off-hand  pungent  para- 
graphs, expressing  with  clearness  and  courage  their  opin- 
ion on  any  person  or  performance.  Valuable  or  not,  it 
is  a  skill  that  is  rarely  found,  out  of  the  English  journals. 
The  English  do  this,  as  they  write  poetry,  as  they  ride 
and  box,  by  being  educated  to  it.  Hundreds  of  clever 
Praeds,  and  Freres,  and  Froudes,  and  Hoods,  and  Hooks, 
and  Maginns,  and  Mills,  and  Macaulays,  make  poems,  or 


THE  "TIMES."  199 

short  essays  for  a  journal,  as  they  make  speeches  in  Par- 
liament and  on  the  hustings,  or,  as  they  shoot  and  ride. 
It  is  a  quite  accidental  and  arbitrary  direction  of  their 
general  ability.  Rude  health  and  spirits,  an  Oxford  edu- 
cation, and  the  habits  of  society  are  implied,  but  not  a 
ray  of  genius.  It  comes  of  the  crowded  state  of  the 
professions,  the  violent  interest  which  all  men  take  hi 
politics,  the  facility  of  experimenting  in  the  journals,  and 
high  nay. 

The  most  conspicuous  result  of  this  talent  is  the 
"Times"  newspaper.  No  power  in  England  is  more 
felt,  more  feared,  or  more  obeyed.  What  you  read  in 
the  morning  in  that  journal,  you  shall  hear  in  the  even- 
ing in  all  society.  It  has  ears  everywhere,  and  its  infor- 
mation is  earliest,  completest,  and  surest.  It  has  risen, 
year  by  year,  and  victory  by  victory,  to  its  present  au- 
thority. I  asked  one  of  its  old  contributors,  whether  it 
had  once  been  abler  than  it  is  now.  "  Never,"  he  said ; 
"  these  are  its  palmiest  days."  It  has  shown  those  quali- 
ties which  are  dear  to  Englishmen,  unflinching  adher- 
ence to  its  objects,  prodigal  intellectual  ability,  and  a 
towering  assurance,  backed  by  the  perfect  organization 
in  its  printing-house,  and  its  world-wide  network  of 
correspondence  and  reports.  It  has  its  own  history 
and  famous  trophies.  In  1820,  it  adopted  the  cause  of 
Queen  Caroline,  and  carried  it  against  the  king.  It 
adopted  a  poor-law  system,  and  almost  alone  lifted  it 
through.  "When  Lord  Brougham  was  in  power,  it  de- 
cided against  him,  and  pulled  him  down.  It  declared 
war  against  Ireland,  and  conquered  it.  It  adopted  the 
League  against  the  Corn  Laws,  and,  when  Cobden  had 


200  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

begun  to  despair,  it  announced  his  triumph.  It  de- 
nounced and  discredited  the  French  Republic  of  1848, 
and  checked  every  sympathy  with  it  in  England,  until 
it  had  enrolled  200,000  special  constables  to  watch  the 
Chartists,  and  make  them  ridiculous  on  the  10th  April. 
It  first  denounced  and  then  adopted  the  new  French 
Empire,  and  urged  the  French  Alliance  and  its  results. 
It  has  entered  into  each  municipal,  literary,  and  social 
question,  almost  with  a  controlling  voice.  It  has  doue 
bold  and  seasonable  service  iu  exposing  frauds  which 
threatened  tlie  commercial  community.  Meantime,  it 
attacks  its  rivals  by  perfecting  its  printing  machinery, 
and  will  drive  them  out  of  circulation;  for  the  only  limit 
to  the  circulation  of  the  "  Times  "  is  the  impossibility  of 
printing  copies  fast  enough  ;  since  a  daily  paper  can  only 
be  new  and  seasonable  for  a  few  hours.  It  will  kill  all 
but  that  paper  which  is  diametrically  in  opposition  ;  since 
many  papers,  first  and  last,  have  lived  by  their  attacks  on 
the  leading  journal. 

The  late  Mr.  Walter  was  printer  of  the  "  Times,"  and 
had  gradually  arranged  the  whole  materiel  of  it  in  per- 
fect system.  It  is  told,  that  when  he  demanded  a  small 
share  in  the  proprietary,  and  was  refused,  he  said,  "  As 
you  please,  gentlemen ;  and  you  may  take  away  the 
'  Times '  from  this  office  when  you  will ;  I  shall  publish 
the  'New  Times'  next  Monday  morning."  The  propri- 
etors, who  had  already  complained  that  his  charges  for 
printing  were  excessive,  found  that  they  were  in  his 
power,  and  gave  him  whatever  he  wished. 

I  went  one  day  with  a  good  friend  to  the  "Times" 
office,  which  was  entered  through  a  pretty  garden-yard, 


THE     "TIMES."  201 

in  Printing- House  Square.  We  walked  with  some  cir- 
cumspection, as  if  we  were  entering  a  powder-mill ;  but 
the  door  was  opened  by  a  mild  old  woman,  and,  by  dint 
of  some  transmission  of  cards,  we  were  at  last  conducted 
into  the  parlor  of  Mr.  Morris,  a  very  gentle  person, 
with  no  hostile  appearances.  The  statistics  are  now 
quite  out  of  date,  but  I  remember  he  told  us  that  the 
daily  printing  was  then  35,000  copies ;  that  on  the  1st 
March,  1848,  the  greatest  number  ever  printed,  —  54,000 
were  issued;  that,  since  February,  the  daily  circulation 
had  increased  by  8,000  copies.  The  old  press  they 
were  then  using  printed  five  or  six  thousand  sheets  per 
hour;  the  new  machine,  for  which  they  were  then  build- 
ing an  engine,  would  print  twelve  thousand  per  hour. 
Our  entertainer  confided  us  to  a  courteous  assistant  to 
show  us  the  establishment,  in  which,  I  think,  they  em- 
ployed a  hundred  and  twenty  men.  I  remember,  I  saw 
the  reporters'  room,  in  which  they  redact  their  hasty 
stenographs,  but  the  editor's  room,  and  who  is  in  it,  I 
did  not  see,  though  I  shared  the  curiosity  of  mankind 
respecting  it. 

The  staff  of  the  "  Times  "  lias  always  been  made  up 
of  able  men.  Old  Walter,  Sterling,  Bacon,  Barnes,  Al- 
siger,  Horace  Twiss,  Jones  Loyd,  John  Oxenford,  Mr. 
Mosely,  Mr.  Bailey,  have  contributed  to  its  renown  in 
their  special  departments.  But  it  has  never  wanted  the 
first  pens  for  occasional  assistance.  Its  private  informa- 
tion is  inexplicable,  and  recalls  the  stories  of  Fouche's 
police,  whose  omniscience  made  it  believed  that  the  Em- 
press Josephine  must  be  in  his  pay.  It  has  mercantile 
and  political  correspondents  in  every  foreign  city;  and  its 


202  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

expresses  outrun  the  despatches  of  the  government.  One 
hears  anecdotes  of  the  rise  of  its  servants,  as  of  the  func- 
tionaries of  the  India  House.  I  was  told  of  the  dexterity 
of  one  of  its  reporters,  who,  finding  himself,  on  one  occa- 
sion, where  the  magistrates  had  strictly  forbidden  report- 
ers, put  his  hands  into  his  coat-pocket,  and  with  pencil 
in  one  hand,  and  tablet  in  the  other,  did  his  work. 

The  influence  of  this  journal  is  a  recognized  power  in 
Europe,  and,  of  course,  none  is  more  conscious  of  it 
than  its  conductors.  The  tone  of  its  articles  has  often 
been  the  occasion  of  comment  from  the  official  organs  of 
the  continental  courts,  and  sometimes  the  ground  of 
diplomatic  complaint.  What  would  the  "  Times  "  say  ? 
is  a  terror  in  Paris,  in  Berlin,  in  Vienna,  in  Copenhagen, 
and  in  Nepaul.  Its  consummate  discretion  and  success 
exhibit  the  English  skill  of  combination.  The  daily 
paper  is  the  work  of  many  hands,  chiefly,  it  is  said,  of 
young  men  recently  from  the  University,  and  perhaps 
reading  law  in  chambers  in  London.  Hence  the  aca- 
demic elegance,  and  classic  allusion,  which  adorn  its  col- 
umns. Hence,  too,  the  heat  and  gallantry  of  its  onset. 
But  the  steadiness  of  the  aim  suggests  the  belief  that 
this  fire  is  directed  and  fed  by  older  engineers ;  as  if  per- 
sons of  exact  information,  and  with  settled  views  of 
policy,  supplied  the  writers  with  the  basis  of  fact,  and 
the  object  to  be  attained,  and  availed  themselves  of 
their  younger  energy  and  eloquence  to  plead  the  cause. 
Both  the  council  and  the  executive  departments  gain  by 
this  division.  Of  two  men  of  equal  ability,  the  one  who 
does  not  write,  but  keeps  his  eye  on  the  course  of  public 
affairs,  will  have  the  higher  judicial  wisdom.  But  the 


THE  "TIMES."  203 

parts  are  kept  in  concert ;  all  the  articles  appear  to  pro- 
ceed from  a  single  will.  The  "  Times"  never  disapproves 
of  what  itself  has  said,  or  cripples  itself  by  apology  for 
the  absence  of  the  editor,  or  the  indiscretion  of  him  who 
held  the  pen.  It  speaks  out  bluff  and  bold,  and  sticks 
to  what  it  says.  It  draws  from  any  number  of  learned 
and  skilful  contributors;  but  a  more  learned  and  skilful 
person  supervises,  corrects,  and  co-ordinates.  Of  this 
closet,  the  secret  does  not  transpire.  No  writer  is  suf- 
fered to  claim  the  authorship  of  any  paper ;  everything 
good,  from  whatever  quarter,  comes  out  editorially  ;  and 
thus,  by  making  the  paper  everything,  and  those  who  write 
it  nothing,  the  character  and  the  awe  of  the  journal  gain. 
The  English  like  it  for  its  complete  information.  A  state- 
ment of  fact  in  the  "  Times  "  is  as  reliable  as  a  citation 
from  Hansard.  Then,  they  like  its  independence ;  they 
do  not  know,  when  they  take  it  up,  what  their  paper  is 
going  to  say ;  but,  above  all,  for  the  nationality  and  con- 
fidence of  its  tone.  It  thinks  for  them  all ;  it  is  their 
understanding  and  day's  ideal  daguerreotyped.  When  I 
see  them  reading  its  columns,  they  seem  to  me  becoming 
every  moment  more  British.  It  has  the  national  courage, 
not  rash  and  petulant,  but  considerate  and  determined. 
No  dignity  or  wealth  is  a  shield  from  its  assault.  It 
attacks  a  duke  as  readily  as  a  policeman,  and  with  the 
most  provoking  airs  of  condescension.  It  makes  rude 
work  with  the  Board  of  Admiralty.  The  Bench  of 
Bishops  is  still  less  safe.  One  bishop  fares  badly  for  his 
rapacity,  and  another  for  his  bigotry,  and  a  third  for  his 
courtliness.  It  addresses  occasionally  a  hint  to  majesty 
itself,  and  sometimes  a  hint  which  is  taken.  There  is  an 


204  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

air  of  freedom  even  in  their  advertising  columns,  which 
speaks  well  for  England  to  a  foreigner.  Oil  the  days 
when  I  arrived  in  London  in  1847,  I  read  among  the 
daily  announcements,  one  offering  a  reward  of  fifty 
pounds  to  any  person  who  would  put  a  nobleman,  de- 
scribed by  name  and  title,  late  a  member  of  Parliament, 
into  any  county  jail  in  England,  he  having  been  con- 
victed of  obtaining  money  under  false  pretences. 

Was  never  such  arrogancy  as  the  tone  of  this  paper. 
Every  slip  of  an  Oxonian  or  Cantabrigian  who  writes  his 
first  leader  assumes  that  we  subdued  the  earth  before  we 
sat  down  to  write  this  particular  "  Times."  One  would 
think  the  world  was  on  its  knees  to  the  "  Times  "  Office, 
for  its  daily  breakfast.  But  this  arrogance  is  calculated. 
Who  would  care  for  it,  if  it  "  surmised,"  or  "  dared  to 
confess,"  or  "  ventured  to  predict,"  etc.  ?  No ;  it  is  so, 
and  so  it  shall  be. 

The  morality  and  patriotism  of  the  "Times"  claims 
only  to  be  representative,  and  by  no  means  ideal.  It 
gives  the  argument,  not  of  the  majority,  but  of  the  com- 
manding class.  Its  editors  know  better  than  to  defend 
Russia,  or  Austria,  or  English  vested  rights,  on  abstract 
grounds.  But  they  give  a  voice  to  the  class  M'ho,  at  the 
moment,  take  the  lead;  and  they  have  an  instinct  for 
finding  where  the  power  now  lies,  which  is  eternally 
shifting  its  banks.  Sympathizing  with,  and  speaking  for 
the  class  that  rules  the  hour,  yet,  being  apprised  of  every 
ground-swell,  every  Chartist  resolution,  every  Church 
squabble,  every  strike  in  the  mills,  they  detect  the  first 
tremblings  of  change.  They  watch  the  hard  and  bitter 
struggles  of  the  authors  of  each  liberal  movement,  year 


THE   "TIMES."  205 

by  year,  — watching  them  only  to  taunt  and  obstruct 
them,  —  until,  at  last,  when  they  see  that  these  have 
established  their  fact,  that  power  is  on  the  point  of  pass- 
ing to  them,  they  strike  in,  with  the  voice  of  a  monarch, 
astonish  those  whom  they  succor,  as  much  as  those  whom 
they  desert,  and  make  victory  sure.  Of  course,  the 
aspirants  see  that  the  "  Times "  is  one  of  the  goods  of 
fortune,  not  to  be  won  but  by  winning  their  cause. 

"Punch"  is  equally  an  expression  of  English  good 
sense,  as  the  "  London  Times."  It  is  the  comic  version 
of  the  same  sense.  Many  of  its  caricatures  are  equal  to 
the  best  .pamphlets,  and  will  convey  to  the  eye  in  an  in- 
stant the  popular  view  which  was  taken  of  each  turn  of 
public  affairs.  Its  sketches  are  usually  made  by  mas- 
terly hands,  and  sometimes  with  genius ;  the  delight  of 
every  class,  because  uniformly  guided  by  that  taste 
which  is  tyrannical  in  England.  It  is  a  new  trait  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  that  the  wit  and  humor  of  England, 
as  in  Punch,  so  in  the  humorists,  Jerrold,  Dickens, 
Thackeray,  Hood,  have  taken  the  direction  of  humanity 
and  freedom. 

The  "  Times,"  like  every  important  institution,  shows 
the  way  to  a  better.  It  is  a  living  index  of  the  colossal 
British  power.  Its  existence  honors  the  people  who 
dare  to  print  all  they  know,  dare  to  know  all  the  facts, 
and  do  not  wish  to  be  flattered  by  hiding  the  extent  of 
the  public  disaster.  There  is  always  safety  in  valor.  I 
wish  I  could  add,  that  this  journal  aspired  to  deserve  the 
power  it  wields,  by  guidance  of  the  public  sentiment  to 
the  right.  It  is  usually  pretended,  in  Parliament  and 
elsewhere,  that  the  English  press  has  a  high  tone,  — 


206  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

which  it  has  not.  It  has  an  imperftil  tone,  as  of  a  pow- 
erful and  independent  nation.  But  as  with  other  em- 
pires, its  tone  is  prone  to  be  official,  and  even  officinal. 
The  "  Times  "  shares  all  the  limitations  of  the  governing 
classes,  and  wishes  never  to  be  in  a  minority.  If  only  it 
dared  to  cleave  to  the  right,  to  show  the  right  to  be  the 
only  expedient,  and  feed  its  batteries  from  the  central 
heart  of  humanity,  it  might  not  have  so  many  men  of 
rank  among  its  contributors,  but  genius  would  be  its  cor- 
dial and  invincible  ally ;  it  might  now  and  then  bear  the 
brunt  of  formidable  combinations,  but  no  journal  is  ruined 
by  wise  courage.  It  would  be  the  natural  leader  of  Brit- 
ish reform  ;  its  proud  function,  that  of  being  the  voice  of 
Europe,  the  defender  of  the  exile  and  patriot  against 
despots,  would  be  more  effectually  discharged;  it  would 
have  the  authority  which  is  claimed  for  that  dream  of 
good  men  not  yet  come  to  pass,  an  International  Con- 
gress ;  and  the  least  of  its  victories  would  be  to  give  to 
England  a  new  millennium  of  beneficent  power. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

STONEHENGE. 

IT  had  been  agreed  between  my  friend  Mr.  C.  and 
me,  that  before  I  left  England  we  should  make  an  excur- 
sion together  to  Stonehenge,  which  neither  of  us  had 
seen ;  and  the  project  pleased  my  fancy  with  the  double 
attraction  of  the  monument  and  the  companion.  It 
seemed  a  bringing  together  of  extreme  points,  to  visit 


STONEHENGE.  207 

the  oldest  religious  monument  in  Britain  in  company 
\vith  her  latest  thinker,  and  one  whose  influence  may  be 
traced  in  every  contemporary  book.  I  was  glad  to  sum 
up  a  little  my  experiences,  and  to  exchange  a  few  reason- 
able words  on  the  aspects  of  England,  with  a  man  on 
whose  genius  I  set  a  very  high  value,  and  who  had  as 
much  penetration,  and  as  severe  a  theory  of  duty  as  any 
person  in  it.  On  Friday,  7th  July,  we  took  the  South- 
western Railway  through  Hampshire  to  Salisbury,  where 
we  found  a  carriage  to  convey  us  to  Amesbury.  The 
fine  weather  and  my  friend's  local  knowledge  of  Hamp- 
shire, in  which  he  is  wont  to  spend  a  part  of  every 
summer,  made  the  way  short.  There  was  much  to  say, 
too,  of  the  1  ravelling  Americans,  and  their  usual  objects 
in  London.  I  thought  it  natural  that  they  should  give 
some  time  to  works  of  art  collected  here,  which  they 
cannot  find  at  home,  and  a  little  to  scientific  clubs  and 
museums,  which,  at  this  moment,  make  London  very 
attractive.  But  my  philosopher  was  not  contented. 
Art  and  'high  art'  is  a  favorite  target  for  his  wit. 
"  Yes,  Kunst  is  a  great  delusion,  and  Goethe  and  Schiller 
wasted  a  great  deal  of  goocLtime  on  it "  :  —  and  he  thinks 
he  discovers  that  old  Goethe  found  this  out,  and,  in  his 
later  writings,  changed  his  tone.  As  soon  as  men  begin 
to  talk  of  art,  architecture,  and  antiquities,  nothing  good 
comes  of  it.  He  wishes  to  go  through  the  British  Mu- 
seum in  silence,  and  thinks  a  sincere  man  will  see  some- 
thing, and  say  nothing.  In  these  days,  he  thought,  it, 
would  become  an  architect  to  consult  only  the  grim  ne- 
cessity, and  say,  '  I  can  build  you  a  coffin  for  such  dead 
persons  as  you  are,  and  for  such  dead  purposes  as  you 


208  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

have,  but  you  shall  have  no  ornament.'  For  the  science, 
he  had,  if  possible,  even  less  tolerance,  and  compared 
the  savans  of  Somerset  House  to  the  boy  \vho  asked 
Confucius  "how  many  stars  in  the  slcy  ? "  Confucius 
replied,  "  he  minded  things  near  him " ;  then  said  the 
boy,  "  how  many  hairs  are  there  in  your  eyebrows  ?  " 
Confucius  said,  "he  did  n't  know  and  did  n't  care." 

Still  speaking  of  the  Americans,  C.  complained  that 
they  dislike  the  coldness  and  exclusiveness  of  the  Eng- 
lish, and  run  away  to  Trance,  and  go  with  their  country- 
men, and  are  amused,  instead  of  manfully  staying  in 
London,  and  confronting  Englishmen,  and  acquiring 
their  culture,  who  really  have  much  to  teach  them. 

I  told  C.  that  I  was  easily  dazzled,  and  was  accus- 
tomed to  concede  readily  all  that  an  Englishman  would 
ask;  I  saw  everywhere  in  the  country  proofs  of  sense 
and  spirit,  and  success  of  every  sort :  I  like  the  people  : 
they  are  as  good  as  they  are  handsome ;  they  have  every- 
thing, and  can  do  everything:  but  meantime,  I  surely 
know,  that,  as  soon  as  I  return  to  Massachusetts,  I  shall 
lapse  at  once  into  the  feeling,  which  the  geography  of 
America  inevitably  inspires,  that  we  play  the  game  with 
immense  advantage;  that  there  and  not  here  is  the  seat 
and  centre  of  the  British  race ;  and  that  no  skill  or  activ- 
ity can  long  compete  with  the  prodigious  natural  advan- 
tages of  that  country,  in  the  hands  of  the  same  race ;  aud 
that  England,  an  old  and  exhausted  island,  must  one  day 
be  contented,  like  other  parents,  to  be  strong  only  in  her 
children.  But  this  was  a  proposition  which  no  English- 
man of  whatever  condition  can  easily  entertain. 

We  left  the  train  at  Salisbury,  and  took  a  carriage 


STONEHENGE.  209 

to  Amesbury,  passing  by  Old  Sarum,  a  bare,  treeless  lull, 
once  containing  the  town  which  sent  two  members  to 
Parliament,  —  now,  not  a  hut,  —  and,  arriving  at  Ames- 
bury,  stopped  at  the  George  Inn.  After  dinner,  we 
walked  to  Salisbury  Plain.  On  the  broad  downs,  under 
the  gray  sky,  not  a  house  was  visible,  nothing  but 
Stonehenge,  which  looked  like  a  group  of  brown  dwarfs 
in  the  wide  expanse,  —  Stonehenge  and  the  barrows, 
which  rose  like  green  bosses  about  the  plain,  and  a  few 
hay-ricks.  On  the  top  of  a  mountain,  the  old  temple 
would  not  be  more  impressive.  Far  and  wide  a  few 
shepherds  with  their  flocks  sprinkled  the  plain,  and  a 
bagman  drove  along  the  road.  It  looked  as  if  the  wide 
margin  given  in  this  crowded  isle  to  this  primeval  temple 
were  accorded  by  the  veneration  of  the  British  race  to 
the  old  egg  out  of  which  all  their  ecclesiastical  structures 
and  history  had  proceeded.  Stonehenge  is  a  circular 
colonnade  with  a  diameter  of  a  hundred  feet,  and  enclos- 
ing a  second  and  a  third  colonnade  within.  We  walked 
round  the  stones,  and  clambered  over  them,  to  wont  our- 
selves with  their  strange  aspect  and  groupings,  and 
found  a  nook  sheltered  from  the  wind  among  them, 
where  C.  lighted  his  cigar.  It  was  pleasant  to  see,  that 
just  this  simplest  of  all  simple  structures  —  two  upright 
stones  and  a  lintel  laid  across  —  had  long  outstood  all  later 
churches,  and  all  history,  and  were  like  what  is  most 
permanent  on  the  face  of  the  planet :  these,  and  the  bar- 
rows, —  mere  mounds  (of  which  there  are  a  hundred  and 
sixty  within  a  circle  of  three  miles  about  Stonehenge), 
like  the  same  mound  on  the  plain  of  Troy,  which  still 
makes  good  to  the  passing  mariner  on  Hellespont,  the 


210  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

raunt  of  Homer  and  the  fame  of  Achilles.  Within  the 
enclosure  grow  buttercups,  nettles,  and,  all  around,  wild 
thyme,  daisy,  meadow-sweet,  golden-rod,  thistle,  and  the 
carpeting  grass.  Over  us,  larks  were  soaring  and  sing- 
ing, —  as  my  friend  said  :  "  the  larks  which  were  hatched 
last  year,  and  the  wind  which  was  hatched  many  thou- 
sand years  ago."  We  counted  and  measured  by  paces 
the  biggest  stones,  and  soon  knew  as  much  as  any  man 
can  suddenly  know  of  the  inscrutable  temple.  There  are 
ninety-four  stones,  and  there  were  once  probably  one 
hundred  and  sixty.  The  temple  is  circular,  and  uncov- 
ered, and  the  situation  fixed  astronomically ;  —  the  grand 
entrances  here,  and  at  Abury,  being  placed  exactly  north- 
east, "  as  all  the  gates  of  the  old  cavern  temples  are." 
How  came  the  stones  here  ?  for  these  sarsens  or  Druid- 
ical  sandstones  are  not  found  in  this  neighborhood.  The 
sacrificial  stone,  as  it  is  called,  is  the  only  one  in  all  these 
blocks,  that  can  resist  the  action  of  fire,  and  as  I  read  in 
the  books,  must  have  been  brought  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles. 

On  almost  every  stone  we  found  the  marks  of  the 
mineralogist's  hammer  and  chisel.  The  nineteen  smaller 
stones  of  the  inner  circle  are  of  granite.  I,  who  had 
just  come  from  Professor  Sedgwick's  Cambridge  Museum 
of  megatheria  and  mastodons,  was  ready  to  maintain 
that  some  cleverer  elephants  or  mylodonta  had  borne  off 
and  laid  these  rocks  one  on  another.  Only  the  good 
beasts  must  have  known  how  to  cut  a  well-wrought  tenon 
and  mortise,  and  to  smooth  the  surface  of  some  of  the 
stones.  The  chief  mystery  is,  that  any  mystery  should 
have  been  allowed  to  settle  on  so  remarkable  a  monu- 


STONEIIENGE.  211 

merit,  in  a  country  on  which  all  the  muses  have  kept 
their  eyes  now  for  eighteen  hundred  years.  We  are  not 
yet  too  late  to  learn  much  more  than  is  known  of  this 
structure.  Some  diligent  Fellowes  or  Layard  will  arrive, 
stone  by  stone,  at  the  whole  history,  by  that  exhaustive 
British  sense  and  perseverance,  so  whimsical  in  its  choice 
of  objects,  which  leaves  its  own  Stonehenge  or  Choir 
Gaur  to  the  rabbits,  whilst  it  opens  pyramids,  and  uncov- 
ers Nineveh.  Stonehenge,  in  virtue  of  the  simplicity  of 
its  plan,  and  its  good  preservation,  is  as  if  new  and 
recent;  and,  a  thousand  years  hence,  men  will  thank 
this  age  for  the  accurate  history  it  will  yet  eliminate. 
We  walked  in  and  out,  and  took  again  and  again  a  fresh 
look  at  the  uncanny  stones.  The  old  sphinx  put  our 
petty  differences  of  nationality  out  of  sight.  To  these 
conscious  stones  we  two  pilgrims  were  alike  known  and 
near.  We  could  equally  well  revere  their  old  British 
meaning.  My  philosopher  was  subdued  and  gentle.  In 
this  quiet  house  of  destiny,  he  happened  to  say,  "  1 
plant  cypresses  wherever  I  go,  and  if  I  am  in  search  of 
pain,  I  cannot  go  wrong."  The  spot,  the  gray  blocks, 
and  their  rude  order,  which  refuses  to  be  disposed  of, 
suggested  to  him  the  flight  of  nges,  and  the  succession 
of  religions.  The  old  times  of  England  impress  C. 
much  ;  he  reads  little,  he  says,  in  these  last  years,  but 
"Ada  Sanctorum"  the  fifty-three  volumes  of  which  are 
in  the  "  London  Library."  He  finds  all  English  history 
therein.  He  can  see,  as  he  reads,  the  old  saint  of  lona 
sitting  there,  and  writing,  a  man  to  men.  The  Ada 
Sanctorum  show  plainly  that  the  men  of  those  times 
believed  in  God,  and  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  as 


212  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

their  abbeys  and  cathedrals  testify  :  now,  even  the  puri- 
tanism  is  all  gone.  London  is  pagan.  He  fancied  that 
greater  men  had  lived  in  England  than  any  of  her 
•writers  ;  and,  in  fact,  about  the  time  when  those  writers 
appeared,  the  last  of  these  were  already  gone. 

We  left  the  mound  in  the  twilight,  with  the  design  to 
return  the  next  morning,  and  coming  back  two  miles  to 
our  inn,  we  were  met  by  little  showers,  and  late  as  it 
was,  men  and  women  were  out  attempting  to  protect 
their  spread  windrows.  The  grass  grows  rank  and  dark 
in  the  showery  England.  At  the  inn,  there  was  only 
milk  for  one  cup  of  tea.  When  we  called  for  more,  the 
girl  brought  us  three  drops.  My  friend  was  annoyed 
who  stood  for  the  credit  of  an  English  inn,  and  still 
more,  the  next  morning,  by  the  dog-cart,  sole  procurable 
vehicle,  in  which  we  were  to  be  sent  to  Wilton.  I  en- 
gaged the  local  antiquary,  Mr.  Brown,  to  go  with  us  to 
Stonehenge,  on  our  way,  and  show  us  what  he  knew  of 
the  "astronomical"  and  " sacrificial "  stones.  I  stood 
on  the  last,  and  he  pointed  to  the  upright,  or  rather, 
inclined  stone,  called  the  "  astronomical,"  and  bade  me 
notice  that  its  top  ranged  with  the  sky-line.  "  Yes." 
Very  well.  Now,  at  the  summer  solstice,  the  sun  rises 
exactly  over  the  top  of  that  stone,  and,  at  the  Druidical 
temple  at  Abury,  there  is  also  an  astronomical  stone,  in 
the  same  relative  positions. 

In  the  silence  of  tradition,  this  one  relation  to  science 
becomes  an  important  clew;  but  we  were  content  to 
leave  the  problem,  with  the  rocks.  Was  this  the 
"  Giants'  Dance  "  which  Merlin  brought  from  Killaraus, 
in  Ireland,  to  be  Uther  Peudragon's  monument  to  the 


STONEHENGE.  213 

British  nobles  whom  Heugist  slaughtered  here,  as  Geof- 
frey of  Monmouth  relates  ?  or  was  it  a  Roman  work,  as 
Inigo  Joues  explained  to  King  James;  or  identical  in 
design  and  style  with  the  East  Indian  temples  of  the 
sun ;  as  Davies  in  the  Celtic  Researches  maintains  ?  Of 
all  the  writers,  Stukeley  is  the  best.  The  heroic  anti- 
quary, charmed  with  the  geometric  perfections  of  his 
ruin,  connects  it  with  the  oldest  monuments  and  religion 
of  the  world,  and,  with  the  courage  of  his  tribe,  does  not 
stick  to  say,  "  the  Deity  who  made  the  world  by  the 
scheme  of  Stonehenge/'  He  finds  that  the  cursus*  on 
Salisbury  Plain  stretches  across  the  downs,  like  a  line  of 
latitude  upon  the  globe,  and  the  meridian  line  of  Stone- 
henge  passes  exactly  through  the  middle  of  this  cursus. 
But  here  is  the  high  point  of  the  theory :  the  Druids  had 
the  magnet;  laid  their  courses  by  it;  their  cardinal  points 
in  Stoiiehenge,  Ambresbury,  and  elsewhere,  which  vary 
a  little  from  true  east  and  west,  followed  the  variations 
of  the  compass.  The  Druids  were  Phoenicians.  The 
name  of  the  magnet  is  lapis  Heracleus,  and  Hercules  was 
the  god  of  the  Phoenicians.  Hercules,  in  the  legend, 
drew  his  bow  at  the  sun,  and  the  sun-god  gave  him  a 
golden  cup,  with  which  he  sailed  over  the  ocean.  What 
was  this,  but  a  compass-box  ?  This  cup  or  little  boat, 

*  Connected  with  Stonehenge  are  an  avenue  and  a  cur- 
tut.  The  avenue  is  a  narrow  road  of  raised  earth,  extending 
594  yards  in  a  straight  line  from  the  grand  entrance,  then 
dividing  into  two  branches,  which  lead,  severally,  to  a  row  of 
barrows  :  and  to  the  cursus,  —  an  artificially  formed  flat  tract 
of  ground.  This  is  half  a  mile  northeast  from  Stonehenge, 
bounded  by  banks  and  ditches,  3,036  yards  long,  by  110  broad. 


214  ENGLISH   .TRAITS. 

in  which  the  magnet  was  made  to  float  on  water,  and  so 
show  the  north,  was  probably  its  first  form,  before  it  was 
suspended  on  a  pin.  But  science  was  an  arcanum,  and, 
as  Britain  was  a  Phoenician  secret,  so  they  kept  their 
•  compass  a  secret,  and  it  was  lost  with  the  Tyrian  com- 
merce. The  golden  fleece,  again,  of  Jason,  was  the 
compass,  —  a  bit  of  loadstone,  easily  supposed  to  be  the 
only  one  in  the  world,  and  therefore  naturally  awakening 
the  cupidity  and  ambition  of  the  young  heroes  of  a  mari- 
time nation  to  join  in  an  expedition  to  obtain  possession 
of  this  wise  stone.  Hence  the  fable  that  the  ship  Argo 
was  loquacious  and  oracular.  There  is  also  some  curious 
coincidence  in  the  names.  Apollodorus  makes  Magnes 
the  son  of  JEolus,  who  married  Nais.  On  hints  like 
these,  Stukeley  builds  again  the  grand  colonnade  into 
historic  harmony,  and  computing  backward  by  the  known 
variations  of  the  compass,  bravely  assigns  the  year  406 
before  Christ  for  the  date  of  the  temple. 

For  the  difficulty  of  handling  and  carrying  stones  of 
this  size,  the  like  is  done  in  all  cities,  every  day,  with  no 
other  aid  than  horse-power.  I  chanced  to  see  a  year  ago 
men  at  work  on  the  substructure  of  a  house  in  Bowdoin 
Square,  in  Boston,  swinging  a  block  of  granite  of  the 
size  of  the  largest  of  the  Stonehenge  columns  with  an 
ordinary  derrick.  The  men  were  common  masons,  with 
paddies  to  help,  nor  did  they  think  they  were  doing  any- 
thing remarkable.  I  suppose  there  were  as  good  men  a 
thousand  years  ago.  And  we  wonder  how  Stonehenge 
was  built  and  forgotten.  After  spending  half  an  hour 
oft  the  spot,  we  set  forth  in  our  dog-cart  over  the  downs 
fgr  Wilton,  C.  not  suppressing  some  threats  and  evil 


STONEHENGE.  215 

omens  on  the  proprietors,  for  keeping  these  broad  plains 
a  wretched  sheep-walk  when  so  many  thousands  of  Eng- 
lishmen were  hungry  and  wanted  labor.  But  I  heard 
afterwards  that  it  is  not  an  economy  to  cultivate  this 
land,  which  only  yields  one  crop  on  being  broken  up, 
and  is  then  spoiled. 

We  came  to  Wilton  and  to  Wilton  Hall,  —  the  re- 
nowned seat  of  the  Earls  of  Pembroke,  a  house  known 
to  Shakspeare  and  Massinger,  the  frequent  home  of  Sir 
Philip  Sidney,  where  he  wrote  the  Arcadia;  where  he 
conversed  with  Lord  Brooke,  a  man  of  deep  thought, 
and  a  poet,  who  caused  to  be  engraved  on  his  tombstone, 
"Here  lies  Fulke  Greville  Lord  Brooke,  the  friend  of 
Sir  Philip  Sidney."  It  is  now  the  property  of  the  Earl 
of  Pembroke,  and  the  residence  of  his  brother,  Sidney 
Herbert,  Esq.,  and  is  esteemed  a  noble  specimen  of  the 
English  manor-hall.  My  friend  had  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Herbert  to  his  housekeeper,  and  the  bouse  was  shown. 
The  state  drawing-room  is  a  double  cube,  thirty  feet 
high,  by  thirty  wide,  by  sixty  feet  long :  the  adjoining 
room  is  a  single  cube,  of  thirty  feet  every  way.  Although 
these  apartments  and  the  long  library  were  full  of  good 
family  portraits,  Vandykes  and  other ;  and  though  there 
were  some  good  pictures,  and  a  quadrangle  cloister  full 
of  antique  and  modern  statuary,  —  to  which  C.,  catalogue 
in  hand,  did  all  too  much  justice,  —  yet  the  eye  was  still 
drawn  to  the  windows,  to  a  magnificent  lawn,  on  which 
grew  the  finest  cedars  in  England.  I  had  not  seen  more 
charming  grounds.  We  went  out,  and  walked  over  the 
estate.  We  crossed  a  bridge  built  by  Inigo  Jones  over  a 
stream,  of  wliich  the  gardener  did  not  know  the  name, 


216  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

(Qu.  Alpli?)  watched  the  deer;  climbed  to  the  lonely 
sculptured  summer-house,  on  a  hill  backed  by  a  wood; 
came  down  into  the  Italian  garden,  and  into  a  French 
pavilion,  garnished  with  French  busts;  and  so,  again  to 
the  house,  where  we  found  a  table  laid  for  us  with  bread, 
meats,  peaches,  grapes,  and  wine. 

On  leaving  Wilton  House,  we  took  the  coach  for 
Salisbury.  The  Cathedral  which  was  finished  six  hun- 
dred years  ago  has  even  a  spruce  and  modern  air,  and  its 
spire  is  the  highest  in  England.  I  know  not  why,  but  I 
had  been  more  struck  with  one  of  no  fame  at  Coventry, 
which  rises  three  hundred  feet  from  the  ground,  with  the 
lightness  of  a  mullein-plant,  and  not  at  all  implicated 
with  the  church.  Salisbury  is  now  esteemed  the  cul- 
mination of  the  Gothic  art  in  England,  as  the  buttresses 
are  fully  unmasked,  and  honestly  detailed  from  the  sides 
of  the  pile.  The  interior  of  the  Cathedral  is  obstructed 
by  the  organ  in  the  middle,  acting  like  a  screen.  I  know 
not  why  in  real  architecture  the  hunger  of  the  eye  for 
length  of  line  is  so  rarely  gratified.  The  rule  of  art  is 
that  a  colonnade  is  more  beautiful  the  longer  it  is,  and 
that  ad  infnititm.  And  the  nave  of  a  church  is  seldom 
so  long  that  it  need  be  divided  by  a  screen. 

We  loitered  in  the  church,  outside  tlie  choir,  whilst 
service  was  said.  Whilst  we  listened  to  the  organ,  my 
friend  remarked,  the  music  is  good  and  yet  not  quite 
religious,  but  somewhat  as  if  a  monk  were  panting  to 
some  fine  Queen  of  Heaven.  C.  was  unwilling,  and  we 
did  not  ask  to  have  the  choir  shown  us,  but  returned  to 
our  inn,  after  seeing  another  old  church  of  the  place. 
We  passed  in  the  train  Clarendon  Park,  but  could  see 


STONEHENGE.  217 

little  but  the  edge  of  a  wood,  though  C.  had  wished  to 
pay  closer  attention  to  the  birthplace  of  the  Decrees  of 
Clarendon.  At  Bishopstoke  we  stopped,  and  found  Mr. 
H.,  who  received  us  in  his  carriage,  and  took  us  to  his 
house  at  Bishops  Waltliam. 

Oil  Sunday,  we  had  much  discourse  on  a  very  rainy 
day.  My  friends  ask,  whether  there  were  any  Ameri- 
cans ?  —  any  with  an  American  idea,  —  any  theory  of  the 
right  future  of  that  country?  Thus  challenged,  I  be- 
thought myself  neither  of  caucuses  nor  congress,  neither 
of  presidents  nor  of  cabinet-ministers,  nor  of  such  as 
would  make  of  America  another  Europe.  I  thought  only 
of  the  simplest  and  purest  minds ;  I  said,  '  Certainly  yes ; 
but  those  who  hold  it  are  fanatics  of  a  dream  which  I 
should  hardly  care  to  relate  to  your  English  ears,  to 
which  it  might  be  only  ridiculous,  —  and  yet  it  is  the 
only  true.'  So  I  opened  the  dogma  of  no  government 
and  non-resistance,  and  anticipated  the  objections  and 
the  fun,  and  procured  a  kind  of  hearing  for  it.  I  said,  it 
is  true  that  I  have  never  seen  in  any  country  a  man  of 
sufficient  valor  to  stand  for  this  truth,  and  yet  it  is  plain 
to  me  that  no  less  valor  than  this  can  command  my 
respect.  I  can  easily  see  the  bankruptcy  of  the  vulgar 
musket-worship,  —  though  great  men  be  musket-wor- 
shippers ;  and  't  is  certain,  as  God  liveth,  the  gun  that 
does  not  need  another  gun,  the  law  of  love  and  justice 
alone,  can  effect  a  clean  revolution.  I  fancied  that  one 
or  two  of  my  anecdotes  made  some  impression  on  C., 
and  I  insisted  that  the  manifest  absurdity  of  the  view  to 
English  feasibility  could  make  no  difference  to  a  gentle- 
man;  that  as  to  our  secure  tenure  of  our  mutton-chop 
10 


£18  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

and  spinage  in  London  or  in  Boston,  the  soul  might 
quote  Talleyrand,  "  Monsieur,  je  n'en  vois  pas  la  nc-ces- 
site."  *  As  I  had  thus  taken  in  the  conversation  the 
saint's  part,  when  dinner  was  announced,  C.  refused  to 
go  out  before  me,  —  "  he  was  altogether  too  wicked." 
I  planted  my  back  against  the  wall,  and  our  host  wittily 
rescued  us  from  the  dilemma,  by  saying,  he  was  the 
wickedest,  and  would  walk  out  first,  then  C.  followed, 
and  I  went  last. 

On  the  way  to  Winchester,  whither  our  host  accom- 
panied us  in  the  afternoon,  my  friends  asked  many  ques- 
tions respecting  American  landscape,  forests,  houses,  — 
my  house,  for  example.  It  is  not  easy  to  answer  these 
queries  well.  There  I  thought,  in  America,  lies  nature 
sleeping,  overgrowing,  almost  conscious,  too  much  by 
half  for  man  in  the  picture,  and  so  giving  a  certain 
tristesse,  like  the  rank  vegetation  of  swamps  and  forests 
seen  at  night,  steeped  in  dews  and  rains,  which  it  loves ; 
and  on  it  man  seems  not  able  to  make  much  impression. 
There,  in  that  great  sloven  continent,  in  high  Alleghauy 
pastures,  in  the  sea- wide,  sky -skirted  prairie,  still  sleeps 
and  murmurs  and  hides  the  great  mother,  long  since 
driven  away  from  the  trim  hedge-rows  and  over-culti- 
vated garden  of  England.  And,  in  England,  I  am  quite 
too  sensible  of  this.  Every  one  is  on  his  good  behavior, 
and  must  be  dressed  for  dinner  at  six.  So  I  put  off  my 
friends  with  very  inadequate  details,  as  best  I  could. 

Just  before  entering  Winchester,  we  stopped  at  the 
Church  of  Saint  Cross,  and,  after  looking  through  the 
quaint  antiquity,  we  demanded  a  piece  of  bread  and  a 

*  "Mais,  Monseigneur,  il  faut  que  j'existe." 


STONEHENGE.  219 

draught  of  beer,  which  the  founder,  Henry  de  Blois,  in 
1136,  commanded  should  be  given  to  every  one  who 
should  ask  it  at  the  gate.  We  had  both,  from  the  old 
couple  who  take  care  of  the  church.  Some  twenty  peo- 
ple, every  day,  they  said,  make  the  same  demand.  This 
hospitality  of  seven  hundred  years'  standing  did  not  hin- 
der C.  from  pronouncing  a  malediction  on  the  priest  who 
receives  £  2,000  a  year,  that  were  meant  for  the  poor, 
and  spends  a  pittance  on  this  small-beer  and  crumbs. 

In  the  Cathedral,  I  was  gratified,  at  least  by  the 
ample  dimensions.  The  length  of  line  exceeds  that  of 
any  other  English  church ;  being  556  feet  by  250  in 
breadth  of  transept.  I  think  I  prefer  this  church  to  all 
I  have  seen,  except  Westminster  and  York.  Here  was 
Canute  buried,  and  here  Alfred  the  Great  was  crowned 
and  buried,  and  here  the  Saxon  kings:  and,  later,  in 
his  own  church,  William  of  Wykeham.  It  is  very  old : 
part  of  the  crypt  into  which  we  went  down  and  saw  the 
Saxon  and  Norman  arches  of  the  old  church  on  which 
the  present  stands,  was  built  fourteen  or  fifteen  hundred 
years  ago.  Sharon  Turner  says  :  "  Alfred  was  buried  at 
Winchester,  in  the  Abbey  he  had  founded  there,  but  his 
remains  were  removed  by  Henry  I.  to  the  new  Abbey  in 
the  meadows  at  Hyde,  on  the  northern  quarter  of  the 
city,  and  laid  under  the  high  altar.  The  building  was 
destroyed  at  the  Reformation,  and  what  is  left,  of  Alfred's 
body  now  lies  covered  by  modern  buildings,  or  buried  in 
the  ruins  of  the  old."  *  William  of  Wykeham's  shrine 
tomb  was  unlocked  for  us,  and  C.  took  hold  of  the  re- 
cumbent statue's  marble  hands,  and  patted  them  affec- 

*  History  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  I.  599. 


220  ENGLISH    TKAITS. 

tionately,  for  he  rightly  values  the  brave  man  who  built 
Windsor,  and  this  Cathedral,  and  the  School  here,  and 
New  College  at  Oxford.  But  it  was  growing  late  in  the 
afternoon.  Slowly  we  left  the  old  house,  and  parting 
with  our  host,  we  took  the  train  for  London. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

PERSONAL. 

IN  these  comments  on  an  old  journey  now  revised 
after  seven  busy  years  have  much  changed  men  and 
tilings  in  England,  I  have  abstained  from  reference  to 
persons,  except  in  the  last  chapter,  and  in  one  or  two  cases 
where  the  fame  of  the  parties  seemed  to  have  given  the 
public  a  property  in  all  that  concerned  them.  I  must 
further  allow  myself  a  few  notices,  if  only  as  an  acknowl- 
edgment of  debts  that  cannot  be  paid.  My  journeys 
were  cheered  by  so  much  kindness  from  new  friends, 
that  my  impression  of  the  island  is  bright  with  agreeable 
memories  both  of  public  societies  and  of  households; 
and,  what  is  nowhere  better  found  than  in  England,  a 
cultivated  person  fitly  surrounded  by  a  happy  home, 
"with  honor,  love,  obedience,  troops  of  friends,"  is  of 
all  institutions  the  best.  At  the  landing  in  Liverpool,  I 
found  my  Manchester  correspondent  awaiting  me,  a  gen- 
tleman whose  kind  reception  was  followed  by  a  train  of 
friendly  and  effective  attentions  which  never  rested  whilst 
I  remained  in  the  country.  A  man  of  sense  and  of  letters, 
the  editor  of  a  powerful  local  journal,  he  added  to  solid 


PERSONAL.  22i 

virtues  an  infinite  sweetness  and  bonhommie.  There 
seemed  a  pool  of  honey  about  his  heart  which  lubricated 
all  his  speech  and  action  with  fine  jets  of  mead.  An 
equal  good-fortune  attended  many  later  accident  s  of  my 
journey,  until  the  sincerity  of  English  kindness  ceased  to 
surprise.  My  visit  fell  in  the  fortunate  days  when  Mr. 
Bancroft  was  the  American  Minister  in  London,  and  at 
his  house,  or  through  his  good  offices,  I  had  easy  access 
to  excellent  persons  and  to  privileged  places.  At  the 
house  of  Mr.  Carlyle,  I  met  persons  eminent  in  society 
and  in  letters.  The  privileges  of  the  Athenaeum  and  of 
the  Tleform  Glubs  were  hospitably  opened  to  me,  and  I 
found  much  advantage  in  the  circles  of  the  "  Geologic," 
the  "Antiquarian,"  and  the  "Royal  Societies."  Every 
day  in  London  gave  me  new  opportunities  of  meeting 
men  and  women  who  give  splendor  to  society.  I  saw 
Rogers,  Hallam,  Macaulay,  Milnes,  Milman,  Barry  Corn- 
wall, Dickens,  Thackeray,  Tennyson,  Leigh  Hunt, 
D'Israeli,  Helps,  Wilkinson,  Bailey,  Kenyon,  and  Fors- 
ter :  the  younger  poets,  Clough,  Arnold,  and  Patmore ; 
and,  among  the  men  of  science,  Robert  Brown,  Owen, 
Sedgwick,  Faraday,  Buckland,  Lyell,  Da  la  Beche, 
Hooker,  Carpenter,  Babbage,  and  Edward  Forbes.  It 
was  my  privilegs  also  to  converse  with  Miss  Baillie,  witl> 
Lady  Morgan,  with  Mrs.  Jameson,  and  Mrs.  Somerville. 
A  finer  hospitality  made  many  private  houses  not  less 
known  and  dear.  It  is  not  in  distinguished  circles  that 
wisdom  and  elevated  characters  are  usually  found,  or,  if 
found,  not  confined  thereto ;  and  my  recollections  of  the 
best  hours  go  back  to  private  conversations  in  different 
parts  of  the  kingdom,  with  persons  little  known.  Nor 


222  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

am  I  insensible  to  the  courtesy  which  frankly  opened  to 
me  some  noble  mansions,  if  I  do  not  adorn  niy  page  with 
their  names.  Among  the  privileges  of  London,  I  recall 
with  pleasure  two  or  three  signal  days,  one  at  Kew, 
where  Sir  William  Hooker  showed  me  all  the  riches  of 
the  vast  botanic  garden ;  one  at  the  Museum,  where  Sir 
Charles  Fellowes  explained  in  detail  the  history  of  his 
Ionic  trophy -monument ;  and  still  another,  on  which  Mr. 
Owen  accompanied  my  countryman  Mr.  H.  and  myself 
through  the  Hunterian  Museum. 

The  like  frank  hospitality,  bent  on  real  service,  I  found 
among  the  great  and  the  humble,  wherever  I  went ;  in 
Birmingham,  in  Oxford,  in  Leicester,  in  Nottingham,  in 
Sheffield,  in  Manchester,  in  Liverpool.  At  Edinburgh, 
through  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Samuel  Brown,  I  made  the 
acquaintance  of  De  Quiucey,  of  Lord  Jeffrey,  of  Wilson, 
of  Mrs.  Crowe,  of  the  Messrs.  Chambers,  and  of  a  man  of 
high  character  and  genius,  the  short-lived  painter  David 
Scott. 

At  Ambleside,  in  March,  1848,  I  was  for  a  couple  of 
days  the  guest  of  Miss  Martineau,  then  newly  returned 
from  her  Egvptian  tour.  On  Sunday  afternoon,  I  accom- 
panied her  to  Rydal  Mount.  And  as  I  have  recorded  a 
visit  to  Wordsworth,  many  years  before,  I  must  not  for- 
get this  second  interview.  We  found  Mr.  Wordsworth 
asleep  on  the  sofa.  He  was  at  first  silent  and  indisposed, 
as  an  old  man,  suddenly  waked,  before  he  had  ended  his 
nap;  but  soon  became  full  of  talk  on  the  French  news. 
He  was  nationally  bitter  on  the  French  :  bitter  on  Scotch- 
men, too.  No  Scotchman,  he  said,  can  write  English. 
He  detailed  the  two  models,  on  one  or  the  other  of  which 


PERSONAL.  223 

all  the  sentences  of  the  historian  Robertson  are  framed. 
Nor  could  Jeffrey,  nor  the  Edinburgh  Reviewers  write 
English,  nor  cau  ....  who  is  a  pest  to  the  English 
tongue.  Incidentally  he  added,  Gibbon  cannot  write 
English.  The  Edinburgh  Review  wrote  what  would  tell 
and  what  would  sell.  It  had  however  changed  the  tone 
of  its  literary  criticism  from  the  time  when  a  certain  letter 
was  written  to  the  editor  by  Coleridge.  Mrs.  W.  had  the 
Editor's  answer  in  her  possession.  Tennyson  he  thinks 
a  right  poetic  genius,  though  with  some  affectation.  He 
had  thought  an  elder  brother  of  Tennyson  at  first  the 
better  poet,  but  must  now  reckon  Alfred  the  true  one. 
....  In  speaking  of  I  know  not  what  style,  he  said, 
"  To  be  sure  it  was  the  manner,  but  then  you  know  the 
matter  always  comes  out  of  the  manner."  ....  He 
thought  Rio  Janeiro  the  best  place  in  the  world  for  a 

great  capital  city We  talked  of  English  national 

character.  I  told  him  it  was  not  creditable  that  no  one 
in  all  the  country  knew  anything  of  Thomas  Taylor,  the 
Platonist,  whilst  in  every  American  library  his  translations 
are  found.  I  said,  if  Plato's  Republic  were  published  in 
England  as  a  new  book  to-day,  do  you  think  it  would  find 
any  readers  ?  —  he  confessed,  it  would  not :  "  And  yet," 
he  added  after  a  pause,  with  that  complacency  which 
never  deserts  a  true-born  Englishman,  —  "and  yet  we 
have  embodied  it  all." 

His  opinions  of  French,  English,  Irish,  and  Scotch 
seemed  rashly  formulized  from  little  anecdotes  of  what 
had  befallen  himself  and  members  of  his  family,  in  a  dili- 
gence or  stage-coach.  His  face  sometimes  lighted  up, 
but  his  conversation  was  not  marked  by  special  force  or 


224  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

elevation.  Yet  perhaps  it  is  a  high  compliment  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  English  generally,  when  we  find  such 
a  man  not  distinguished.  He  had  a  healthy  look,  with  a 
weather-beaten  face,  his  face  corrugated,  especially  the 
large  nose. 

Miss  Martineau,  who  lived  near  him,  praised  him  to 
me,  not  for  his  poetry,  but  for  thrift  and  economy ;  for 
having  afforded  to  his  country  neighbors  an  example  of  a 
modest  household,  where  comfort  and  culture  were  se- 
cured without  any  display.  She  said,  that,  in  his  early 
housekeeping  at  the  cottage  where  he  first  lived,  he  was 
accustomed  to  offer  his  friends  bread  and  plainest  fare  : 
if  they  wanted  anything  more,  they  must  pay  him  for 
their  board.  It  was  the  rule  of  the  house.  I  replied, 
that  it  evinced  English  pluck  more  than  any  anecdote  I 
knew.  A  gentleman  in  the  neighborhood  told  the  story 
of  Walter  Scott's  once  staying  a  week  with  Wordsworth, 
and  slipping  out  every  day  under  pretence  of  a  walk,  to 
the  Swan  Inn,  for  a  cold  cut  and  porter ;  and  one  day 
passing  with  Wordsworth  the  inn,  he  was  betrayed  by 
the  landlord's  asking  him  if  he  had  come  for  his  porter. 
Of  course,  this  trait  would  have  another  look  in  London, 
and  there  you  will  hear  from  different  literary  men,  that 
Wordsworth  had  no  personal  friend,  that  he  was  not 
amiable,  that  he  was  parsimonious,  etc.  Landor,  always 
generous,  says  that  he  never  praised  anybody.  A  gentle- 
man in  London  showed  me  a  watch  that  once  belonged 
to  Milton,  whose  initials  are  engraved  on  its  face.  He 
said,  he  once  showed  this  to  Wordsworth,  who  took  it  in 
one  hand,  then  drew  out  his  own  watch,  and  held  it  up 
wjtb,  ^he  other,  before  the  company,  but  no  one  making 


RESULT.  225 

the  expected  remark,  lie  put  back  his  own  in  silence.  I 
do  not  attach  much  importance  to  the  disparagement  of 
Wordsworth  among  London  scholars.  Who  reads  him 
well  will  know,  that  in  following  the  strong  bent  of  his 
genius,  he  was  careless  of  the  many,  careless  also  of  the 
few,  self-assured  that  he  should  "  create  the  taste  by 
which  he  is  to  be  enjoyed."  He  lived  long  enough  to 
witness  the  revolution  he  had  wrought,  and  "to  see  what 
he  foresaw."  There  are  torpid  places  in  his  mind,  there 
is  something  hard  and  sterile  in  his  poetry,  want  of  grace 
and  variety,  want  of  due  catholicity  and  cosmopolitan 
scope :  he  had  conformities  to  English  politics  and  tradi- 
tions; he  had  egotistic  puerilities  in  the  choice  and  treat- 
ment of  his  subjects;  but  let  us  say  of  him,  that,  alone 
in  his  time,  he  treated  the  human  mind  well,  and  with  an 
absolute  trust.  His  adherence  to  his  poetic  creed  rested 
on  real  inspirations.  The  Ode  on  Immortality  is  the 
high-water  mark  which  the  intellect  has  reached  in  this 
age.  New  means  were  employed,  and  new  realms  added 
to  the  empire  of  the  muse,  by  his  courage. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

KESULT. 

ENGLAND  is  the  best  of  actual  nations.  It  is  no  ideal 
framework,  it  is  an  old  pile  built  in  different  ages,  with 
repairs,  additions,  and  makeshifts ;  but  you  see  the  poor 
best  you  have  got.  London  is  the  epitome  of  our  times, 
and  the  Rome  of  to-day.  Broad-fronted,  broad-bottomed 
10 »  o 


£26  ENGLISH     TKAITS. 

Teutons,  they  stand  in  solid  phalanx  foursquare  to  the 
points  of  compass ;  they  constitute  the  modern  world, 
they  have  earned  their  vantage-ground,  and  held  it 
through  ages  of  adverse  possession.  They  are  well 
marked  and  differing  from  other  leading  races.  England 
is  tender-hearted.  Rome  was  not.  England  is  not  so 
public  in  its  bias;  private  life  is  its  place  of  honor. 
Truth  in  private  life,  untruth  in  public,  marks  these 
home-loving  men.  Their  political  conduct  is  not  decided 
by  general  views,  but  by  internal  intrigues  and  personal 
and  family  interest.  They  cannot  readily  see  beyond 
England.  The  history  of  Rome  and  Greece,  when  writ- 
ten by  their  scholars,  degenerates  into  English  party 
pamphlets.  They  cannot  see  beyond  England,  nor  in 
England  can  they  transcend  the  interests  of  the  govern- 
ing classes.  "  English  principles  "  mean  a  primary  re- 
gard to  the  interests  of  property.  England,  Scotland, 
and  Ireland  combine  to  check  the  colonies.  England 
and  Scotland  combine  to  check  Irish  manufactures  and 
trade.  England  rallies  at  home  to  check  Scotknd.  In 
England,  the  strong  classes  check  the  weaker.  In  the 
home  population  of  near  thirty  millions,  there  are  but 
one  million  voters.  The  Church  punishes  dissent,  pun- 
ishes education.  Down  to  a  late  day,  marriages  performed 
by  dissenters  were  illegal.  A  bitter  class-legislation  gives 
power  to  those  who  are  rich  enough  to  buy  a  law.  The 
game-laws  are  a  proverb  of  oppression.  Pauperism  in- 
crusts  and  clogs  the  state,  and  in  hard  times  becomes 
hideous.  In  bad  seasons,  the  porridge  was  diluted. 
Multitudes  lived  miserably  by  shell-fish  and  sea-ware. 
In  cities,  the  children  are  trained  to  beg,  until  they  shall 


RESULT.  227 

be  old  enough  to  rob.  Men  and  women  were  convicted 
of  poisoning  scores  of  children  for  burial  fees.  In  Irish 
districts,  men  deteriorated  in  size  and  shape.  The  nose 
sunk,  the  gums  were  exposed,  with  diminished  brain  and 
brutal  form.  During  the  Australian  emigration,  multi- 
tudes were  rejected  by  the  commissioners  as  being  too 
emaciated  for  useful  colonists.  During  the  Russian  war, 
few  of  those  that  offered  as  recruits  were  found  up  to  the 
medical  standard,  though  it  had  been  reduced. 

The  foreign  policy  of  England,  though  ambitious  and 
lavish  of  money,  has  not  often  been  generous  or  just.  It 
has  a  principal  regard  to  the  interest  of  trade,  checked 
however  by  the  aristocratic  bias  of  the  ambassador,  which 
usually  puts  him  in  sympathy  with  the  continental  Courts. 
It  sanctioned  the  partition  of  Poland,  it  betrayed  Genoa, 
Sicily,  Parga,  Greece,  Turkey,  Rome,  and  Hungary. 

Some  public  regards  they  have.  They  have  abolished 
slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  and  put  an  end  to  human 
sacrifices  in  the  East.  At  home  they  have  a  certain 
statute  hospitality.  England  keeps  open  doors,  as  a 
trading  country  must,  to  all  nations.  It  is  one  of  their 
fixed  ideas,  and  wrathfully  supported  by  their  laws  in 
unbroken  sequence  for  a  thousand  years.  In  Magna 
Charta  it  was  ordained,  that  all  "  merchants  shall  have 
safe  and  secure  conduct  to  go  out  and  come  into  Eng- 
land, and  to  stay  there,  and  to  pass  as  well  by  land  as 
by  water,  to  buy  and  sell  by  the  ancient  allowed  customs, 
without  any  evil  toll,  except  in  time  of  war,  or  when 
they  shall  be  of  any  nation  at  war  with  us."  It  is  a 
statute  and  obliged  hospitality,  and  peremptorily  main- 
tained. But  this  shop-rule  had  one  magnificent  effect. 


228  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

It  extends  its  cold  unalterable  courtesy  to  political  exiles 
of  every  opinion,  and  is  a  fact  which  might  give  addi- 
tional light  to  that  portion  of  the  planet  seen  from  the 
farthest  star.  But  this  perfunctory  hospitality  puts  no 
sweetness  into  their  unaccommodating  manners,  no  check 
on  that  puissant  nationality  which  makes  their  existence 
incompatible  with  all  that  is  not  English. 

What  we  must  say  about  a  nation  is  a  superficial  deal- 
ing with  symptoms.  We  cannot  go  deep  enough  into 
the  biography  of  the  spirit  who  never  throws  himself  en- 
tire into  one  hero,  but  delegates  his  energy  in  parts  or 
spasms  to  vicious  and  defective  individuals.  But  the 
wealth  of  the  source  is  seen  in  the  plenitude  of  English 
nature.  What  variety  of  power  and  talent ;  what  facil- 
ity and  plenteousness  of  knighthood,  lordship,  ladyship, 
royalty,  loyalty;  what  a  proud  chivalry  is  indicated  in 
"Collins's  Peerage,"  through  eight  hundred  years! 
What  dignity  resting  on  what  reality  and  stoutness ! 
What  courage  in  war,  what  sinew  in  labor,  what  cunning 
workmen,  what  inventors  and  engineers,  what  seamen 
and  pilots,  what  clerks  and  scholars !  No  one  man  and 
no  few  men  can  represent  them.  It  is  a  people  of  myriad 
personalities.  Their  many-headedness  is  owing  to  the 
advantageous  position  of  the  middle  class,  who  are  always 
the  source  of  letters  and  science.  Hence  the  vast  plenty 
of  their  aesthetic  production.  As  they  are  many-headed, 
so  they  are  many-nationed ;  their  colonization  annexes 
archipelagoes  and  continents,  and  their  speech  seems 
destined  to  be  the  universal  language  of  men.  I  have 
noted  the  reserve  of  power  in  the  English  temperament. 
In  the  island,  they  never  let  out  all  the  length  of  all  the 


RESULT.  229 

reins,  there  is  no  Berserkir  rage,  no  abandonment  or 
ecstasy  of  will  or  intellect,  like  that  of  the  Arabs  in  the 
time  of  Mahomet,  or  like  that  which  intoxicated  France  in 
1789.  But  who  would  see  the  uncoiling  of  that  tremen- 
dous spring,  the  explosion  of  their  well-husbanded  forces, 
must  follow  the  swarms  which,  pouring  now  for  two  hun- 
dred years  from  the  British  islands,  have  sailed,  and 
rode,  and  traded,  and  planted,  through  all  climates, 
mainly  following  the  belt  of  empire,  the  temperate  zones, 
carrying  the  Saxon  seed,  with  its  instinct  for  liberty  and 
law,  for  arts  and  for  thought, — acquiring  under  some 
skies  a  more  electric  energy  than  the  native  air  allows,  — 
to  the  conquest  of  the  globe.  Their  colonial  policy, 
obeying  the  necessities  of  a  vast  empire,  has  become  lib- 
eral. Canada  and  Australia  have  been  contented  with 
substantial  independence.  They  are  expiating  the  wrongs 
of  India,  by  benefits  :  first,  in  works  for  the  irrigation  of 
the  peninsula,  and  roads  and  telegraphs ;  and  secondly, 
in  the  instruction  of  the  people,  to  quailfy  them  for  self- 
government,  whea  the  British  power  shall  be  finally 
called  home. 

Their  mind  is  in  a  state  of  arrested  development,  — 
a  divine  cripple  like  Vulcan ;  a  blind  savant  like  Huber 
and  Sanderson.  They  do  not  occupy  themselves  on 
matters  of  general  and  lasting  import,  but  on  a  corporeal 
civilization,  on  goods  that  perish  in  the  using.  But  they 
read  with  good  intent,  and  what  they  learn  they  incar- 
nate. The  English  mind  turns  every  abstraction  it  can 
receive  into  a  portable  utensil,  or  a  working  institution. 
Such  is  their  tenacity,  and  such  their  practical  turn,  that 
they  hold  all  they  gain.  Hence  we  say,  that  only  the 


230  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

English  race  can  be  trusted  with  freedom,  —  freedom 
which  is  double-edged  and  dangerous  to  any  but  the 
wise  and  robust.  The  English  designate  the  kingdoms 
emulous  of  free  institutions  as  the  sentimental  nations. 
Their  own  culture  is  not  an  outside  varnish,  but  is  thor- 
ough and  secular  in  families  and  the  race.  They  are 
oppressive  with  their  temperament,  and  all  the  more  that 
they  are  refined.  I  have  sometimes  seen  them  walk  with 
my  countrymen,  when  I  was  forced  to  allow  them  every 
advantage,  and  their  companions  seemed  bags  of  bones. 
There  is  cramp  limitation  in  their  habit  of  thought, 
sleepy  routine,  and  a  tortoise's  instinct  to  hold  hard  to 
the  ground  with  his  claws,  lest  he  should  be  thrown  on 
his  back.  There  is  a  drag  of  inertia  which  resists  reform 
in  every  shape ;  law-reform,  army-reform,  extension  of 
suffrage,  Jewish  franchise,  Catholic  emancipation,  —  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  of  impressment,  penal  code,  and 
entails.  They  praise  this  drag,  under  the  formula,  that 
it  is  the  excellence  of  the  British  constitution,  that  no 
law  can  anticipate  the  public  opinion.  These  poor  tor- 
toises must  hold  hard,  for  they  feel  no  wings  sprouting 
at  their  shoulders.  Yet  somewhat  divine  warms  at  their 
heart,  and  waits  a  happier  hour.  It  hides  in  their  sturdy 
will.  "Will,"  said  the  old  philosophy,  "is  the  measure 
of  power,"  and  personality  is  the  token  of  this  race. 
quid  vnlt  valde  wit.  What  they  do  they  do  with  a  will. 
You  cannot  account  for  their  success  by  their  Chris- 
tianity, commerce,  charter,  common  law,  Parliament,  or 
letters,  but  by  the  contumacious  sharp-tongued  energy 
of  English  naturel,  with  a  poise  impossible  to  disturb, 
which  makes  all  these  its  instruments.  They  are  slow  and 


RESULT.  231 

reticent,  and  are  like  a  dull  good  horse  which  lets  every 
nag  pass  him,  but  with  whip  and  spur  will  run  down 
every  racer  in  the  field.  They  are  right  in  their  feeling, 
though  wrong  in  their  speculation. 

The  feudal  system  survives  in  the  steep  inequality  of 
property  and  privilege,  in  the  limited  franchise,  in  the 
social  barriers  which  confine  patronage  and  promotion  to 
a  caste,  and  still  more  in  the  submissive  ideas  pervading 
these  people.  The  fagging  of  the  schools  is  repeated  in 
the  social  classes.  An  Englishman  shows  no  mercy  to 
those  below  him  in  the  social  scale,  as  he  looks  for  none 
from  those  above  him ;  any  forbearance  from  his  superiors 
surprises  him,  and  they  suffer  in  his  good  opinion.  But 
the  feudal  system  can  be  seen  with  less  pain  on  large 
historical  grounds.  It  was  pleaded  in  mitigation  of  the 
rotten  borough,  that  it  worked  well,  that  substantial  jus- 
tice was  done.  Fox,  Burke,  Pitt,  Erskine,  Wilberforce, 
Sheridan,  llomilly,  or  whatever  national  men,  were  by 
this  means  sent  to  Parliament,  when  their  return  by  large 
constituencies  would  have  been  doubtful.  So  now  we  say, 
that  the  right  measures  of  England  are  the  men  it  bred  ; 
that  it  has  yielded  more  able  men  in  five  hundred  years 
than  any  other  nation ;  and,  though  we  must  not  play 
Providence,  and  balance  the  chances  of  producing  ten 
great  men  against  the  comfort  of  ten  thousand  mean  men, 
yet  retrospectively  we  may  strike  the  balance,  and  prefer 
one  Alfred,  one  Shakspeare,  one  Milton,  one  Sidney,  one 
Raleigh,  one  Wellington,  to  a  million  foolish  democrats. 

The  American  system  is  more  democratic,  more  hu- 
mane ;  yet  the  American  people  do  not  yield  better  or 
more  able  men,  or  more  inventions  or  books  or  benefits, 


232  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

than  the  English.  Congress  is  not  wiser  or  better  than 
Parliament.  France  has  abolished  its  suffocating  old 
regime,  but  is  not  recently  marked  by  any  more  wisdom 
or  virtue. 

The  power  of  performance  has  not  been  exceeded,  —  the 
creation  of  value.  The  English  have  given  importance 
to  individuals,  a  principal  end  and  fruit  of  every  society. 
Every  man  is  allowed  and  encouraged  to  be  what  he  is, 
and  is  guarded  in  the  indulgence  of  his  whim.  "  Magna 
Charta,"  said  Rushworth,  "  is  such  a  fellow  that  he  will 
have  no  sovereign."  By  this  general  activity,  and  by 
this  sacredness  of  individuals,  they  have  in  seven  hun- 
dred years  evolved  the  principles  of  freedom.  It  is  the 
land  of  patriots,  martyrs,  sages,  and  bards,  and  if  the 
ocean  out  of  which  it  emerged  should  wash  it  away,  it 
will  be  remembered  as  an  island  famous  for  immortal 
laws,  for  the  announcements  of  original  right  which 
make  the  stone  tables  of  liberty. 


CHAPTEK  XIX. 

SPEECH    AT    MANCHESTER. 

A  FEW  days  after  my  arrival  at  Manchester,  in  No- 
vember, 1847,  the  Manchester  Athenaeum  gave  its  annual 
Banquet  in  the  Free-Trade  Hall.  With  other  guests,  I 
was  invited  to  be  present,  and  to  address  the  company. 
In  looking  over  recently  a  newspaper  report  of  my 
remarks,  I  incline  to  reprint  it,  as  fitly  expressing  the 
feeling  with  which  I  entered  England,  and  which  agrees 


SPEECH    AT    MANCHESTER.  233 

well  enough  with  the  more  deliberate  results  of  better 
acquaintance  recorded  in  the  foregoing  pages.  Sir  Arch- 
ibald Alison,  the  historian,  presided,  and  opened  the 
meeting  with  a  speech.  He  was  followed  by  Mr. 
Cobden,  Lord  Brackley,  and  others,  among  whom  was 
Mr.  Cruikshank,  one  of  the  contributors  to  "  Punch." 
Mr.  Dickens's  letter  of  apology  for  his  absence  was 
read.  Mr.  Jerrold,  who  had  been  announced,  did  not 
appear.  On  being  introduced  to  the  meeting  I  said :  — 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen :  It  is  pleasant  to  me 
to  meet  this  great  and  brilliant  company,  and  doubly 
pleasant  to  see  the  faces  of  so  many  distinguished  persons 
on  this  platform.  But  I  have  known  all  these  persons 
already.  "When  I  was  at  home,  they  were  as  near  to  me 
as  they  are  to  you.  The  arguments  of  the  League  and 
its  leader  are  known  to  all  the  friends  of  free  trade. 
The  gayeties  and  genius,  the  political,  the  social,  the 
parietal  wit  of  "Punch"  go  duly  every  fortnight  to 
every  boy  and  girl  in  Boston  and  New  York.  Sir,  when 
I  came  to  sea,  I  found  the  "  History  of  Europe  "  *  on 
the  ship's  cabin  table,  the  property  of  the  captain ;  —  a 
sort  of  programme  or  play-bill  to  tell  the  seafaring  New- 
Englandcr  what  he  shall  find  on  his  landing  here.  And 
as  for  Dombey,  sir,  there  is  no  land  where  paper  exists  to 
print  on,  where  it  is  not  found ;  no  man  who  can  read, 
that  does  not  read  it,  and,  if  he  cannot,  he  finds  some 
charitable  pair  of  eyes  that  can,  and  hears  it. 

But  these  things  are  not  for  me  to  say ;  these  compli- 
ments, though  true,  would  better  come  from  one  who 

*  By  Sir  A.  Alison. 


234  ENGLISH    TRAITS. 

felt  and  understood  these  merits  more.  I  am  not  here 
to  exchange  civilities  with  you,  but  rather  to  speak  of 
that  which  I  am  sure  interests  these  gentlemen  more 
than  their  own  praises ;  of  that  which  is  good  in  holidays 
and  working-days,  the  same  in  one  century  and  in  another 
century.  That  which  lures  a  solitary  American  in  the 
woods  with  the  wish  to  see  England,  is  the  moral  pecul- 
iarity of  the  Saxon  race,  —  its  commanding  sense  of 
right  and  wrong,  — the  love  and  devotion  to  that,  —  this 
is  the  imperial  trait,  which  arms  them  with  the  sceptre 
of  the  globe.  It  is  this  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of 
that  aristocratic  character,  which  certainly  wanders  into 
strange  vagaries,  so  that  its  origin  is  often  lost  sight  of, 
but  which,  if  it  should  lose  this,  would  find  itself  para- 
lyzed ;  and  in  trade,  and  in  the  mechanic's  shop,  gives 
that  honesty  in  performance,  that  thoroughness  and  solid- 
ity of  work,  which  is  a  national  characteristic.  This 
conscience  is  one  element,  and  the  other  is  that  loyal 
adhesion,  that  habit  of  friendship,  that  homage  of  man 
to  man,  running  through  all  classes, — the  electing  of 
worthy  persons  to  a  certain  fraternity,  to  acts  of  kind- 
ness and  warm  and  stanch  support,  from  year  to  year, 
from  youth  to  age,  —  which  is  alike  lovely  and  honorable 
to  those  who  render  and  those  who  receive  it;  —  which 
stands  in  strong  contrast  with  the  superficial  attachments 
of  other  races,  their  excessive  courtesy,  and  short-lived 
connection. 

You  will  think  me  very  pedantic,  gentlemen,  but  holi- 
day though  it  be,  I  have  not  the  smallest  interest  in  any 
holiday,  except  as  it  celebrates  real  and  not  pretended 
joys;  and  I  think  it  just,  in  this  time  of  gloom  and  com- 


SPEECH    AT    MANCHESTER.  235 

mercial  disaster,  of  affliction  and  beggary  in  these  dis- 
tricts, that  on  these  very  accounts  I  speak  of,  you  should 
not  fail  to  keep  your  literary  anniversary.  I  seem  to 
hear  you  say,  that,  for  all  that  is  come  and  gone  yet,  we 
will  not  reduce  by  one  chaplet  or  one  oak-leaf  the  bra- 
veries of  our  annual  feast.  For  I  must  tell  you,  I  was 
given  to  understand  in  my  childhood,  that  the  British 
island  from  which  my  forefathers  came,  was  no  lotus- 
garden,  no  paradise  of  serene  sky  and  roses  and  music 
and  merriment  all  the  year  round,  no,  but  a  cold,  foggy, 
mournful  country,  where  nothing  grew  well  in  the  open 
air,  but  robust  men  and  virtuous  women,  and  these  of  a 
wonderful  fibre  and  endurance;  that  their  best  parts  were 
slowly  revealed ;  their  virtues  did  not  come  out  until 
they  quarrelled :  they  did  not  strike  twelve  the  first  time; 
good  lovers,  good  haters,  and  yon  could  know  little  about 
them  till  you  had  seen  them  long,  and  little  good  of  them 
till  you  had  seen  them  in  action ;  that  in  prosperity  they 
were  moody  and  dumpish,  but  in  adversity  they  were 
grand.X  Is  it  not  true,  sir,  that  the  wise  ancients  did  not 
praise  the  ship  parting  with  flying  colors  from  the  port, 
but  only  that  brave  sailer  which  came  back  with  torn 
sheets  and  battered  sides,  stript  of  her  banners,  but 
having  ridden  out  the  storm  ?  And  so,  gentlemen,  I  feel 
in  regard  to  this  aged  England,  with  the  possessions, 
honors,  and  trophies,  and  also  with  the  infirmities  of  a 
thousand  years  gathering  around  her,  irretrievably  com- 
mitted as  she  now  is  to  many  old  customs  which  cannot 
be  suddenly  changed ;  pressed  upon  by  the  transitions  of 
trade,  and  new  and  all  incalculable  modes,  fabrics,  arts, 
machines,  and  competing  populations,  —  I  see  her  not 


236  ENGLISH     TRAITS. 

dispirited,  not  weak,  but  well  remembering  that  she  has 
seen  dark  days  before ;  indeed,  with  a  kind  of  instinct 
that  she  sees  a  little  better  in  a  cloudy  day,  and  that 
in  storm  of  battle  and  calamity,  she  has  a  secret  vigor 
and  a  pulse  like  a  cannon.  I  see  her  in  her  old  age, 
not  decrepit,  but  young,  and  still  daring  to  believe  in 
her  power  of  endurance  and  expansion.  Seeing  this,  I 
say,  All  hail !  mother  of  nations,  mother  of  heroes,  with 
strength  still  equal  to  the  time;  still  wise  to  entertain 
and  swift  to  execute  the  policy  which  the  mind  and  heart 
of  mankind  require  in  the  present  hour,  and  thus  only 
hospitable  to  the  foreigner,  and  truly  a  home  to  the 
thoughtful  and  generous  who  are  born  in  the  soil.  So 
be  it !  so  let  it  be !  If  it  be  not  so,  if  the  courage  of 
England  goes  with  the  chances  of  a  commercial  crisis, 
I  will  go  back  to  the  capes  of  Massachusetts,  and  my 
own  Indian  stream,  and  say  to  my  countrymen,  the  old 
race  are  all  gone,  and  the  elasticity  and  hope  of  man- 
kind must  henceforth  remain  on  the  Alleghany  ranges, 
or  nowhere. 


THE    END. 


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LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 
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